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The Visual Atlas
Places, art and manuscripts across time. First era: the apostolic and early church, from Pentecost to the early fourth century.
Rome
Acts ends here with Paul under guard in his own rented house. Everything after, including how Peter and Paul died, comes from the fathers.
- 41.889977
- 12.491258
The real question: where does Acts stop and tradition take over in the story of Peter and Paul at Rome? A biography ends with the man moving to a new city, still working. Everything about his death comes from people who wrote later. Some had seen his grave. How much weight do their accounts carry?
Visitors from Rome are at Pentecost (Acts 2:10). Claudius orders all Jews out of Rome (Acts 18:2). Paul plans to see Rome and is told he must bear witness there (Acts 19:21; 23:11). Brethren meet him on the road; he lives two whole years in his own hired house, preaching without hindrance (Acts 28:14-31). Tertullian, quoted by Eusebius, says Nero was the first to persecute this teaching (Church History 2.25.4). Eusebius says it is recorded that Paul was beheaded in Rome and Peter crucified under Nero (2.25.5). Clement writes from Rome to Corinth (3.16). Ignatius is sent to Rome (3.36.3). Polycarp visits Anicetus at Rome and they keep communion despite their difference over Easter (5.24.16).
Strangers of Rome at Pentecost (Acts 2:10). The expulsion under Claudius (Acts 18:2). Paul purposes to see Rome (Acts 19:21). The Lord's word that he will witness at Rome (Acts 23:11). The brethren at Appii forum and the Three Taverns (Acts 28:15). Paul allowed to live by himself with a soldier (Acts 28:16). Two years in his hired house (Acts 28:30-31).
Eusebius quotes Caius, a churchman of Zephyrinus's time, who says he can show the trophies of the apostles at the Vatican and on the Ostian way (Church History 2.25.6-7). Dionysius of Corinth says Peter and Paul taught together in Italy and suffered martyrdom at the same time (2.25.8). Irenaeus calls the Roman church founded and organized by Peter and Paul (Against Heresies 3.3.2), and Eusebius names Linus as its first bishop after them (Church History 3.2). Eusebius, citing Origen, says Peter asked to be crucified head downward (3.1.2).
- https://www.artic.edu/iiif/2/1128a1f4-85c3-e056-75e0-69564806b3ce/full/843,/0/default.jpg
- Gold aureus of Nero, minted in Rome between December 66 and December 67, inscribed with his name and SALVS on the reverse. Nero is the emperor Tertullian and Eusebius name as the first persecutor.
- Art Institute of Chicago, Aureus (Coin) Portraying Emperor Nero, 1922.4254, gift of William F. Dunham
- https://api.artic.edu/api/v1/artworks/4430
- Public domain (is_public_domain true in the Art Institute of Chicago API)
No biblical manuscript in the sources read here is tied to Rome in this era. Timothy Mitchell, drawing on Galen, writes that papyrus bookrolls did not survive well in the humid environment of Rome (Myths and Mistakes, ch. 2). Whether that explains the silence for Christian books there is an inference, not his claim.
Acts does not record the death of Paul or place Peter in Rome. The deaths come from Eusebius, Caius, Dionysius of Corinth and Origen as Eusebius quotes them. Caius points to trophies, monuments at the two sites, not to an account of the deaths. Peter's crucifixion head downward is Origen's report through Eusebius, and the list of the twelve among the dubious and spurious pieces attributed to Hippolytus repeats it; that list's detail is legend. Pleiades marks its point for Rome as rough, a single dot for a large city.
Not a ruling on the papacy. The entry records what the fathers said about Peter and Paul at Rome. What later churches built on it is another subject.
- Acts 2:10
- Acts 18:2
- Acts 19:21
- Acts 23:11
- Acts 28:14-31
- Acts, checked in the King James Version
- Irenaeus, Against Heresies, ANF vol. 1, 3.3.2
- Eusebius, Church History, trans. McGiffert, NPNF2 vol. 1 (1890), 2.25, 3.1-2, 3.16, 3.36, 5.24
- Hixson and Gurry, eds., Myths and Mistakes in New Testament Textual Criticism (IVP Academic, 2019), ch. 2 (Timothy N. Mitchell)
- Pseudo-Hippolytus, On the Twelve Apostles, ANF vol. 5, Appendix of Dubious and Spurious Pieces
- Pleiades gazetteer, place 423025, Roma, places.csv
- Art Institute of Chicago, object 4430, API record
