Table of Contents
toldinstone reconstructs the Roman cemetery under St. Peter’s. In 1939, workmen lowering a grotto floor for Pope Pius XII struck pagan tomb houses from the high empire. The ancient Vatican was a suburban edge, with Cybele’s temple and the circus of Caligula and Nero. Freedmen and other comfortable families kept brick tombs along a nearby road for generations. Most of the dead were pagan until, in the third century, Christians gathered at a small red wall shrine of three niches. The priest Gaius called it Peter’s trophy and tied it to an execution in Nero’s circus. The film dates shrine and wall to the late second century. Constantine centered his basilica on that spot despite the ban on disturbing graves, destroying the upper tombs and sealing the lower ones in the foundations. The modern dig found the stack intact, plus bones of a robust older man that some called Peter. toldinstone leaves those bones disputed, and stresses that the site has been linked to the apostle since the second century.
Key points
- Pius XII’s 1939 dig found a Roman street of mausoleums under the basilica, not only medieval graves.
- The ancient Vatican was a suburban edge with a temple of Cybele and Nero’s circus.
- The tombs mostly held pagan families of means, including many freedmen, until Christians gathered at a small shrine.
- That shrine, the trophy of Gaius, is dated to the late second century and tied by tradition to Peter.
- Constantine centered his church on it, burying the lower cemetery and destroying the upper part.
- Bones found in the red wall were guessed to be Peter’s, and the film says that guess is still disputed.
Short quotes
Two thousand years ago, the Vatican lay on the suburban fringe of ancient Rome.
toldinstone, Roman tombs under St. Peter's
The hill was outside the city, not yet a church. Watch at 1:37
Both the Trophy of Gaius and the red wall behind it were constructed during the late second century.
toldinstone, Roman tombs under St. Peter's
He dates the monument linked to Peter well after the apostle’s lifetime. Watch at 4:38
Whether the bones were in fact Peter’s is still debated.
toldinstone, Roman tombs under St. Peter's
The skeleton in the wall is a conjecture, not a settled identification. Watch at 8:21
Video by toldinstone. Watch on YouTube.