Plan of old St. Peter's, showing its relation to the Circus of Nero

"...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 even, were lost in the darkness of the Middle Ages.... "

Pagan and Christian Rome

by Rodolfo Lanciani
Author of "Ancient Rome in the Light of Recent Discoveries"

Boston and New York
Houghton, Mifflin and Company
The Riverside Press, Cambridge
1893