Galatians and the First Epistle of St. Peter respectively—but also with Rome. For this part of the tradition there is no obvious hint in the New Testament which can be used to explain away its origin, unless it be supposed that the bare mention of Babylon in the First Epistle of St. Peter is sufficient of itself to have given birth to so complete a legend. It is not surprising that Babylon should have been interpreted as meaning Rome from the first ; but the tradition, that St. Peter died at Rome under Nero, has nothing on which to rest in the Epistles or elsewhere.
Tertullian is the first to state this tradition explicitly. We read, in the Lives of the Caesars, ‘“‘ Nero first laid bloody hands upon the rising faith at Rome. Then was Peter girded by another when he was bound to the cross.”!1 But apart from the definite date, the tradition is as old as Clement of Rome, who cites St. Peter and St. Paul as ‘‘noble examples of our own generation ” in his Epistle to the Corinthians: ‘“‘ By reason of envy and jealousy the great and righteous Pillars were persecuted and struggled on till they died. Let us put before our eyes the good Apostles—Peter, who by reason of unrighteous envy endured not one or two but many labours and so became a martyr and departed to the place of glory which was his due”.2. A brief account of St. Paul’s sufferings, based largely on New Testament evidence, follows; and the conclusion that St. Peter suffered before St. Paul and both at Rome is commonly drawn. After this Clement goes on to say: ‘‘To these men of holy life was gathered a great multitude of elect persons who by reason of envy suffered many outrages and torments and so became a noble example among us”. This further illustration of the terrible effects of envy and jealousy—the theme to which all these references are incidental —is most naturally interpreted as describing the victims of the Neronian persecution of Α.Ρ. 64, of whom Tacitus* speaks as ‘‘a huge multitude”. If, then, Clement has put his illustrations in
1Vitas Caesarum legimus: Orientem fidem Romae primus Nero cruentavit. Nunc Petrus ab altero cingitur, cum cruci adstringitur (Scorpiace, 15). The fact is so stated as to indicate the fulfilment of the word of Jesus reported in John xxi. 18:
διὰ ζῆλον καὶ φθόνον οἱ µέγιστοι καὶ δικαιότατοι στύλοι (cf. Gal. ii. 9) ἐδιώχθησαν καὶ ἕως θανάτου ἤθλησαν. λάβωμεν πρὸ ὀφθαλμῶν ἡμῶν τοὺς ἀγαθοὺς ἀποστόλους Πέτρον ὃς διὰ ζῆλον ἄδικον οὐχ ἕνα οὐδὲ δύο ἀλλὰ πλείονας ὑπήνεγκεν πόνους καὶ οὕτω µαρτυρήσας ἐπορεύθη εἰς τὸν ὀφειλόμενον τόπον τῆς δόξης (I Clementis ad Corinthios, v. 2-4).
τούτοις τοῖς ἀνδράσιν ὁσίως πολιτευσαµένοις συνηθροίσθη πολὺ πλῆθος ἐκλεκτῶν οἵτινες πολλὰς αἰκίας καὶ βασάνους διὰ ζῆλος παθόντες ὑπόδειγμα κάλλιστον ἐγένοντο ἐν ἡμῖν (1 Clementis ad Corinthios, Vi. 1).
4 Annals, xv. 44.