on by the help of the
classical, or pagan, tombs discovered at various times along its
borders. Let us start from the site of the modern Piazza di S. Pietro.
Sante Bartoli, _mem._ 56-57, says that while Pope Alexander VII. was
building the left wing of Bernini's portico, and the fountain of the
southern semicircle, a tomb was discovered with a bas-relief above the
door representing a marriage-scene ("vi era un bellissimo
bassorilievo di un matrimonio antico"). On July 19, 1614, three others
were found in the _atrium_, in one of which was the sarcophagus of
Claudia Hermione, the renowned pantomimist. The best discovery, that
of pagan tombs exactly on the line with that of S. Peter's, was made
in the presence of Grimaldi, November 9, 1616. "On that day," he says,
"I entered a square sepulchral room (10 ft. x 11 ft.), the ceiling of
which was ornamented with designs in painted stucco. There was a
medallion in the centre, with a figure in high relief. The door opened
on the Via Cornelia, which was on the same level. This tomb is located
under the seventh step in front of the middle door of the church. I am
told that the sarcophagus now used as a fountain, in the court of the
Swiss Guards, was discovered at the time of Gregory XIII. in the same
place, and that it contained the body of a pagan."

[Illustration: PLAN OF OLD S. PETER'S, SHOWING ITS RELATION TO THE
CIRCUS OF NERO]

We come now to the decisive point, the discoveries made in the time of
Urban VIII., when the foundations of his bronze baldacchino were sunk
to a great depth, in close proximity to the tomb of S. Peter. The
genuineness of the account is proved by the fact that in spite of its
great bearing on the question, so little importance was attached to it
that, had not Professor Palmieri and Cavaliere Armellini unearthed it
from the sacred dust of the Vatican archives, in which it had been
buried for three and a half centuries, we should still have been
wholly ignorant of its existence.

The account published by Armellini[72] proves that S. Peter must have
been buried in a small plot surrounded by other tombs, and probably
protected by an enclosing wall. There were graves which in later ages
had been dug in confusion, one above the other, by persons wishing to
lie as near as possible to the remains of the apostle; but those of
the time of the persecution were arranged in parallel lines,[73] and
consisted of plain marble coffins bearing no name, and containin