DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.61894#0153
Ch. IV.
THROUGH ITALY.
125
CHAP. IV.
The Basilica Vaticana, or St. Peter s.
J50 the Vatican we shall now turn and close our
account of Roman churches, by a faint and im-
perfect description of some of the glories of this
unrivalled fabric, the boast of modern skill and
trophy of the united arts of painting', sculpture,
and architecture. The Basilica of St. Peter was
the first and noblest religious edifice erected by
Constantine. It stood on part of the circus of
Nero, and was supposed to occupy a spot conse-
crated by the blood of numberless martyrs ex-
posed or slaughtered in that place of public
amusement by order of the tyrant.* But its
* This supposition is far from being groundless, as ap-
pears from the words of Tacitus speaking of the persecu-
tions of Nero. Ergo abolendo rumori (jussum incendium
Romae) Nero subdidit reos et quaesitissimis paenis adfecit,
quos per flagitia invisos, vulgus Christianos appellabat .
Et pereuntibus addita ludibria, ut ferarum tergis contecti Ju-
niata canum interirant aut crucibus affixi, aut flammandi,
atqiie ubi defecisset dies, in usumnocturni luminis urerentur.
THROUGH ITALY.
125
CHAP. IV.
The Basilica Vaticana, or St. Peter s.
J50 the Vatican we shall now turn and close our
account of Roman churches, by a faint and im-
perfect description of some of the glories of this
unrivalled fabric, the boast of modern skill and
trophy of the united arts of painting', sculpture,
and architecture. The Basilica of St. Peter was
the first and noblest religious edifice erected by
Constantine. It stood on part of the circus of
Nero, and was supposed to occupy a spot conse-
crated by the blood of numberless martyrs ex-
posed or slaughtered in that place of public
amusement by order of the tyrant.* But its
* This supposition is far from being groundless, as ap-
pears from the words of Tacitus speaking of the persecu-
tions of Nero. Ergo abolendo rumori (jussum incendium
Romae) Nero subdidit reos et quaesitissimis paenis adfecit,
quos per flagitia invisos, vulgus Christianos appellabat .
Et pereuntibus addita ludibria, ut ferarum tergis contecti Ju-
niata canum interirant aut crucibus affixi, aut flammandi,
atqiie ubi defecisset dies, in usumnocturni luminis urerentur.