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Transcript
· Introduction
0:08 · Since the Renaissance, it had been known that there was a pagan cemetery beneath St. Peter's
0:14 · Basilica.
0:15 · In 1574, workmen had accidentally broken through the vaulted ceiling of an ancient mausoleum.
0:22 · A torch dropped into the interior had revealed shimmering gold mosaics, and a floor carpeted
0:28 · with bones.
0:30 · A half-century later, an elaborate marble sarcophagus had come to light, whose epitaph
0:35 · – which encouraged passers-by to sample the pleasures of wine and women – had so
0:40 · horrified Vatican authorities that they smashed the lid and threw the pieces into the Tiber.
· Excavations begin
0:47 · But by 1939, when Pope Pius XII decided to lower the floor of the grottoes under St.
0:53 · Peter's, these reports had been almost forgotten.
0:57 · Nobody expected the workmen to find more than a few medieval burials.
1:02 · Almost immediately, however, they struck the roof of a pagan mausoleum.
1:06 · Soon they uncovered another, and another – a whole necropolis from the height of the Roman
1:10 · Empire, thirty feet beneath the basilica's floor.
1:14 · The pope authorized the clearance of the largest possible area that could be safely excavated.
1:20 · Despite delays caused by crumbling foundations, masses of stone-hard packed rubble, and a
1:27 · gushing subterranean stream, work advanced steadily in the direction of the high altar,
1:32 · revealing more and more of the Vatican's pre-Christian history.
· The Vatican before Christianity
1:37 · Two thousand years ago, the Vatican lay on the suburban fringe of ancient Rome.
1:42 · It was dominated by a hill, the Mons Vaticanus, whose slopes – now crowned by the Apostolic
1:47 · Palace – were mantled with scraggly vineyards and pockmarked by clay pits.
1:53 · This insalubrious area, notorious for its swarming mosquitos, had only two noteworthy
1:59 · features.
2:01 · One was a temple of the eastern goddess Cybele.
2:04 · The other was a string of imperial estates along the banks of the Tiber.
2:08 · Parts of the imperial properties closest to the river were landscaped into gardens.
2:14 · Other sections seem to have included a practice track for charioteers and at least one artificial
2:19 · pool for naval combats.
2:21 · But the dominant structure was a large circus, begun by Caligula and completed by Nero.
2:27 · Though smaller than the Circus Maximus, it boasted a towering granite obelisk, brought
2:32 · by barge from Alexandria.
· The Vatican Necropolis
2:35 · Over the course of the second and third centuries, a necropolis developed between the Circus
2:39 · of Nero and a road that ran a short distance to the north.
2:43 · Near the Tiber, several gargantuan tombs rose in the shadow of Hadrian's Mausoleum.
2:50 · One of these, a towering pyramid known as the Meta Romuli, survived until the Renaissance,
2:55 · when it was demolished for its stone.
2:58 · Most of the tombs in the necropolis, however, were small mausoleums.
3:04 · Built of brick-faced concrete, they stood in neat rows by the roadside, their facades
3:08 · washed with plaster and trimmed with terracotta.
3:12 · Inside, their walls and ceilings were richly decorated – some with mosaics, others with
3:18 · figured stucco, nearly all with frescoes.
3:22 · These represented a wide range of subjects: scenes from Greek myth, personifications of
3:26 · the morning and evening stars, even a portrait of the Egyptian god Horus.
3:33 · Each mausoleum remained in use for decades, and some received burials for well over a
3:39 · century.
3:40 · The families that owned them belonged to the Roman equivalent of the upper middle class.
3:45 · Many of the men interred there had been functionaries in the imperial bureaucracy.
3:50 · A remarkable number were either freedmen or their descendants.
3:54 · Virtually all, at first, seem to have been pagan.
3:58 · But from the third century onward, a growing minority were Christian, apparently attracted
4:03 · by a small monument in the heart of the Vatican necropolis.
· The Trophy of Gaius
4:07 · That monument consisted of three niches cut into a red-painted wall.
4:13 · The lowest niche, beneath the surface of the surrounding pavement, was covered by a perforated
4:17 · lid.
4:19 · The upper two niches were framed by miniature columns.
4:23 · This was almost certainly the structure described by a Roman priest named Gaius around the turn
4:28 · of the third century as the "trophy" of the Apostle Peter, who had – according to
4:33 · an ancient tradition – been executed in the Circus of Nero.
4:38 · Both the Trophy of Gaius and the red wall behind it were constructed during the late
4:42 · second century.
4:43 · Not long after, the red wall began to crack, and a buttress – later covered with Christian
4:49 · graffiti – was built on one side of the Trophy.
4:52 · Later, an additional buttress was added on the other side, and a railing was built across
4:57 · the front.
4:59 · Later still, the small courtyard facing the Trophy was paved.
5:03 · Otherwise, the Trophy of Gaius and the rest of the Vatican Necropolis changed little until
· Constantine's Basilica
5:09 · Constantine, the first Christian emperor, decided to build a church of unprecedented
5:14 · size and grandeur directly over the site.
5:18 · The emperor insisted that the apse of his new basilica would be centered on the Trophy
5:22 · of Gaius.
5:24 · This was problematic, both because the terrain around the monument sloped steeply, and because
5:29 · Roman law strictly prohibited the violation of cemeteries.
5:33 · Constantine, however, was undeterred.
5:37 · The emperor's workmen cut deep into the Mons Vaticanus, and dumped the spoil – more
5:42 · than a million cubic feet of earth – over the base of the hill to create a level site.
5:48 · In the process, they obliterated the upper part of the Vatican Necropolis.
5:53 · The portion on the lower slopes, however, was buried, and so preserved, within the colossal
5:58 · foundations of the new basilica.
6:00 · Constantine's church took decades to build.
6:04 · When complete, it was a spectacular structure, with long ranks of marble columns marching
6:09 · the length of its gargantuan nave.
· Shrines and high altars
6:12 · The focal point of the whole vast building was the apse, where the once-humble Trophy
6:18 · of Gaius stood, now encased in a shrine of precious marble and porphyry, and crowned
6:23 · by a canopy with spiraling columns.
6:26 · At the end of the sixth century, Pope Gregory I constructed a raised platform around Constantine's
6:33 · marble shrine.
6:34 · Over the shrine – directly on top of the Trophy of Gaius – he built a new high altar.
6:40 · A crypt with a semi-circular passage was excavated beneath the new altar platform, from which
6:46 · pilgrims could access a niche cut into the lower portion of Constantine's shrine.
6:52 · Despite various embellishments, and a destructive raid by Muslim pirates in the ninth century,
6:58 · this arrangement remained basically intact until the Renaissance, when old St. Peter's
7:02 · was torn down to make room for the modern basilica.
7:06 · The medieval platform and crypt were dismantled, and a new high altar was erected on top of
7:10 · Gregory's.
7:11 · At the base of this altar, the confessio – a space recessed beneath the level of the new
7:17 · basilica's floor – was constructed.
7:19 · The finishing touch was Bernini's Baldacchino, which unwittingly mirrored the canopy Constantine
7:25 · had set up over the Trophy of Gaius thirteen centuries before.
7:29 · Now, at last, we can return to Pope Pius XII's excavations under the floor of St. Peter's.
· The bones of St. Peter?
7:37 · When the archaeologists reached the area beneath the high altar, they discovered Gregory's
7:41 · altar, Constantine's shrine, and the Trophy of Gaius superimposed on one other, all more
7:47 · or less intact.
7:49 · They also discovered part of the red wall against which the Trophy of Gaius had been
7:53 · built.
7:54 · The Trophy of Gaius, as mentioned earlier, consisted of three niches – two above the
8:00 · ground, one below.
8:02 · Behind the subterranean niche, the foundations of the red wall bent upward; and in a recess
8:08 · just beneath, the excavators found the bones of an elderly man with a powerful physique.
8:13 · They conjectured that the builders of the red wall had stumbled upon a body, which was
8:18 · identified with the apostle Peter.
8:21 · Whether the bones were in fact Peter's is still debated.
8:25 · There were certainly burials in the area before the mausoleums of the Vatican Necropolis were
8:29 · built: several inhumation graves, at least one apparently dating to the first century,
8:35 · were discovered in the immediate vicinity of the Trophy of Gaius.
8:39 · Equally significant is the fact that the site has been associated with Peter since at least
8:44 · the second century.
8:46 · Constantine, at least, had no doubt that he was building his great basilica over the apostle's
8:52 · tomb.
8:54 · I have a new book: Insane Emperors, Sunken Cities, and Earthquake Machines: more frequently
9:01 · asked questions about the ancient Greeks and Romans.
9:04 · It's a sequel to Naked Statues, Fat Gladiators, and War Elephants; and it's available for
9:10 · pre-order now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and through your local bookstore.
9:15 · If you're interested in more toldinstone content (including my podcast), check out
9:21 · my channel Toldinstone Footnotes.
9:24 · I also have a channel called Scenic Routes to the Past, which is dedicated to historically-themed
9:29 · travel.
9:31 · You'll find both channels linked in the description.
9:35 · Last but not least, please consider joining other viewers in supporting toldinstone on
9:40 · Patreon.
9:41 · Thanks for watching.

The floors beneath the Vatican are the old Vatican the flooring and the pillars are from the original that Constantine built. There is a cool YouTube that shows how Peters tomb went from a small little marker to the facility it is now.

Are the pagans crying that the Vatican was built on stolen land yet?

Thanks. The archaeology on the necropolis is amazing, given that the site has been basically a time capsule since the construction of Constantine’s basilica. I’ve only had the chance to visit the site once; it’s at the top of my list if I ever get back to Rome. One note to those who haven’t yet been there: make your reservations for the necropolis tour as early as possible when you plan your trip. The excavated space is relatively small. It’s not cramped, but it cannot accommodate large crowds, and there are many preserved frescos on the Roman necropolis buildings so moisture from respiration is a preservation issue. The site is open for tours but numbers are strictly limited and tours fill up fast.

I asked how large the Roman necropolis was at the time the first St. Peter’s was built. Our guide didn’t know the answer; the area cleared beneath St. Peter’s is just a (presumably small) portion. Since the whole area is heavily developed, a large scale excavation is not possible. How much may have been learned over the years from construction of later buildings and scattered test excavations, I don’t know.

If they run into a large menorah and a funny-looking arc, kindly return to its owners.

Be careful moving the arc.

Has the grave of Romulus been discovered is on everyone’s mind.

I thought that I’d read everything available in English on this fascinating topic, but I see the one below on Amazon that I haven’t read before and that I ordered today. The big problem with each of the books, including the seminal “Bones of St Peter” is that the old black and white photos that just look like jumbled of mask art are very diffuse to understand
The Fisherman’s Tomb: The True Story of the Vatican’s Secret Search https://a.co/d/1qYVl0v

Transcript
	·	Introduction
0:08	·	Since the Renaissance, it had been known that there was a pagan cemetery beneath St. Peter's
0:14	·	Basilica.
0:15	·	In 1574, workmen had accidentally broken through the vaulted ceiling of an ancient mausoleum.
0:22	·	A torch dropped into the interior had revealed shimmering gold mosaics, and a floor carpeted
0:28	·	with bones.
0:30	·	A half-century later, an elaborate marble sarcophagus had come to light, whose epitaph
0:35	·	– which encouraged passers-by to sample the pleasures of wine and women – had so
0:40	·	horrified Vatican authorities that they smashed the lid and threw the pieces into the Tiber.
	·	Excavations begin
0:47	·	But by 1939, when Pope Pius XII decided to lower the floor of the grottoes under St.
0:53	·	Peter's, these reports had been almost forgotten.
0:57	·	Nobody expected the workmen to find more than a few medieval burials.
1:02	·	Almost immediately, however, they struck the roof of a pagan mausoleum.
1:06	·	Soon they uncovered another, and another – a whole necropolis from the height of the Roman
1:10	·	Empire, thirty feet beneath the basilica's floor.
1:14	·	The pope authorized the clearance of the largest possible area that could be safely excavated.
1:20	·	Despite delays caused by crumbling foundations, masses of stone-hard packed rubble, and a
1:27	·	gushing subterranean stream, work advanced steadily in the direction of the high altar,
1:32	·	revealing more and more of the Vatican's pre-Christian history.
	·	The Vatican before Christianity
1:37	·	Two thousand years ago, the Vatican lay on the suburban fringe of ancient Rome.
1:42	·	It was dominated by a hill, the Mons Vaticanus, whose slopes – now crowned by the Apostolic
1:47	·	Palace – were mantled with scraggly vineyards and pockmarked by clay pits.
1:53	·	This insalubrious area, notorious for its swarming mosquitos, had only two noteworthy
1:59	·	features.
2:01	·	One was a temple of the eastern goddess Cybele.
2:04	·	The other was a string of imperial estates along the banks of the Tiber.
2:08	·	Parts of the imperial properties closest to the river were landscaped into gardens.
2:14	·	Other sections seem to have included a practice track for charioteers and at least one artificial
2:19	·	pool for naval combats.
2:21	·	But the dominant structure was a large circus, begun by Caligula and completed by Nero.
2:27	·	Though smaller than the Circus Maximus, it boasted a towering granite obelisk, brought
2:32	·	by barge from Alexandria.
	·	The Vatican Necropolis
2:35	·	Over the course of the second and third centuries, a necropolis developed between the Circus
2:39	·	of Nero and a road that ran a short distance to the north.
2:43	·	Near the Tiber, several gargantuan tombs rose in the shadow of Hadrian's Mausoleum.
2:50	·	One of these, a towering pyramid known as the Meta Romuli, survived until the Renaissance,
2:55	·	when it was demolished for its stone.
2:58	·	Most of the tombs in the necropolis, however, were small mausoleums.
3:04	·	Built of brick-faced concrete, they stood in neat rows by the roadside, their facades
3:08	·	washed with plaster and trimmed with terracotta.
3:12	·	Inside, their walls and ceilings were richly decorated – some with mosaics, others with
3:18	·	figured stucco, nearly all with frescoes.
3:22	·	These represented a wide range of subjects: scenes from Greek myth, personifications of
3:26	·	the morning and evening stars, even a portrait of the Egyptian god Horus.
3:33	·	Each mausoleum remained in use for decades, and some received burials for well over a
3:39	·	century.
3:40	·	The families that owned them belonged to the Roman equivalent of the upper middle class.
3:45	·	Many of the men interred there had been functionaries in the imperial bureaucracy.
3:50	·	A remarkable number were either freedmen or their descendants.
3:54	·	Virtually all, at first, seem to have been pagan.
3:58	·	But from the third century onward, a growing minority were Christian, apparently attracted
4:03	·	by a small monument in the heart of the Vatican necropolis.
	·	The Trophy of Gaius
4:07	·	That monument consisted of three niches cut into a red-painted wall.
4:13	·	The lowest niche, beneath the surface of the surrounding pavement, was covered by a perforated
4:17	·	lid.
4:19	·	The upper two niches were framed by miniature columns.
4:23	·	This was almost certainly the structure described by a Roman priest named Gaius around the turn
4:28	·	of the third century as the "trophy" of the Apostle Peter, who had – according to
4:33	·	an ancient tradition – been executed in the Circus of Nero.
4:38	·	Both the Trophy of Gaius and the red wall behind it were constructed during the late
4:42	·	second century.
4:43	·	Not long after, the red wall began to crack, and a buttress – later covered with Christian
4:49	·	graffiti – was built on one side of the Trophy.
4:52	·	Later, an additional buttress was added on the other side, and a railing was built across
4:57	·	the front.
4:59	·	Later still, the small courtyard facing the Trophy was paved.
5:03	·	Otherwise, the Trophy of Gaius and the rest of the Vatican Necropolis changed little until
	·	Constantine's Basilica
5:09	·	Constantine, the first Christian emperor, decided to build a church of unprecedented
5:14	·	size and grandeur directly over the site.
5:18	·	The emperor insisted that the apse of his new basilica would be centered on the Trophy
5:22	·	of Gaius.
5:24	·	This was problematic, both because the terrain around the monument sloped steeply, and because
5:29	·	Roman law strictly prohibited the violation of cemeteries.
5:33	·	Constantine, however, was undeterred.
5:37	·	The emperor's workmen cut deep into the Mons Vaticanus, and dumped the spoil – more
5:42	·	than a million cubic feet of earth – over the base of the hill to create a level site.
5:48	·	In the process, they obliterated the upper part of the Vatican Necropolis.
5:53	·	The portion on the lower slopes, however, was buried, and so preserved, within the colossal
5:58	·	foundations of the new basilica.
6:00	·	Constantine's church took decades to build.
6:04	·	When complete, it was a spectacular structure, with long ranks of marble columns marching
6:09	·	the length of its gargantuan nave.
	·	Shrines and high altars
6:12	·	The focal point of the whole vast building was the apse, where the once-humble Trophy
6:18	·	of Gaius stood, now encased in a shrine of precious marble and porphyry, and crowned
6:23	·	by a canopy with spiraling columns.
6:26	·	At the end of the sixth century, Pope Gregory I constructed a raised platform around Constantine's
6:33	·	marble shrine.
6:34	·	Over the shrine – directly on top of the Trophy of Gaius – he built a new high altar.
6:40	·	A crypt with a semi-circular passage was excavated beneath the new altar platform, from which
6:46	·	pilgrims could access a niche cut into the lower portion of Constantine's shrine.
6:52	·	Despite various embellishments, and a destructive raid by Muslim pirates in the ninth century,
6:58	·	this arrangement remained basically intact until the Renaissance, when old St. Peter's
7:02	·	was torn down to make room for the modern basilica.
7:06	·	The medieval platform and crypt were dismantled, and a new high altar was erected on top of
7:10	·	Gregory's.
7:11	·	At the base of this altar, the confessio – a space recessed beneath the level of the new
7:17	·	basilica's floor – was constructed.
7:19	·	The finishing touch was Bernini's Baldacchino, which unwittingly mirrored the canopy Constantine
7:25	·	had set up over the Trophy of Gaius thirteen centuries before.
7:29	·	Now, at last, we can return to Pope Pius XII's excavations under the floor of St. Peter's.
	·	The bones of St. Peter?
7:37	·	When the archaeologists reached the area beneath the high altar, they discovered Gregory's
7:41	·	altar, Constantine's shrine, and the Trophy of Gaius superimposed on one other, all more
7:47	·	or less intact.
7:49	·	They also discovered part of the red wall against which the Trophy of Gaius had been
7:53	·	built.
7:54	·	The Trophy of Gaius, as mentioned earlier, consisted of three niches – two above the
8:00	·	ground, one below.
8:02	·	Behind the subterranean niche, the foundations of the red wall bent upward; and in a recess
8:08	·	just beneath, the excavators found the bones of an elderly man with a powerful physique.
8:13	·	They conjectured that the builders of the red wall had stumbled upon a body, which was
8:18	·	identified with the apostle Peter.
8:21	·	Whether the bones were in fact Peter's is still debated.
8:25	·	There were certainly burials in the area before the mausoleums of the Vatican Necropolis were
8:29	·	built: several inhumation graves, at least one apparently dating to the first century,
8:35	·	were discovered in the immediate vicinity of the Trophy of Gaius.
8:39	·	Equally significant is the fact that the site has been associated with Peter since at least
8:44	·	the second century.
8:46	·	Constantine, at least, had no doubt that he was building his great basilica over the apostle's
8:52	·	tomb.
8:54	·	I have a new book: Insane Emperors, Sunken Cities, and Earthquake Machines: more frequently
9:01	·	asked questions about the ancient Greeks and Romans.
9:04	·	It's a sequel to Naked Statues, Fat Gladiators, and War Elephants; and it's available for
9:10	·	pre-order now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and through your local bookstore.
9:15	·	If you're interested in more toldinstone content (including my podcast), check out
9:21	·	my channel Toldinstone Footnotes.
9:24	·	I also have a channel called Scenic Routes to the Past, which is dedicated to historically-themed
9:29	·	travel.
9:31	·	You'll find both channels linked in the description.
9:35	·	Last but not least, please consider joining other viewers in supporting toldinstone on
9:40	·	Patreon.
9:41	·	Thanks for watching.