the
Christians, described by Tacitus in the well-known passage of the
"Annals," xv. 45. Some of the Christians were covered with the skins
of wild beasts so that savage dogs might tear them to pieces; others
were besmeared with tar and tallow, and burnt at the stake; others
were crucified (_crucibus adfixi_), while Nero in the attire of a
vulgar _auriga_ ran his races around the goals. This took place A. D.
65. Two years later the leader of the Christians shared the same fate
in the same place. He was affixed to a cross like the others, and we
know exactly where. A tradition current in Rome from time immemorial
says that S. Peter was executed _inter duas metas_ (between the two
metae), that is, in the _spina_ or middle line of Nero's circus, at an
equal distance from the two end goals; in other words, he was executed
at the foot of the obelisk which now towers in front of his great
church. For many centuries after the peace of Constantine, the exact
spot of S. Peter's execution was marked by a chapel called the chapel
of the "Crucifixion." The meaning of the name, and its origin, as well
as the topographical details connected with the event, were lost in
the darkness of the Middle Ages. The memorial chapel lost its
identity and was believed to belong to "Him who was crucified," that
is, to Christ himself. It disappeared seven or eight centuries ago. At
the same time the words _inter duas metas_, by which the spot was so
exactly located, were deprived of their genuine significance. The name
_meta_ was generally applied to tombs of pyramidal shape; of which two
were still conspicuous among the ruins of Rome: the pyramid of Caius
Cestius near the Porta S. Paolo, which was called _Meta Remi_, and
that by the church of S. Maria Traspontina, in the quarter of the
Vatican which was called _Meta Romuli_. The consequences of this
mistake were remarkable; to it we owe the erection of two noble
monuments, the church of S. Pietro in Montorio, and the "Tempietto del
Bramante," in the court of the adjoining convent. It seems that in the
thirteenth century, when some one[71] determined to raise a memorial
of S. Peter's execution _inter duas metas_, he chose this spot on the
spur of the Janiculum, because it was located at an equal distance
from the meta of Romulus at la Traspontina, and that of Remus at the
Porta S. Paolo!

The line of the Via Cornelia, which ran parallel with the north side
of the circus, can be traced with precisi