"After the burning of Rome, Nero threw upon the Christians the accusation of having fired the city. This was the origin of the first persecution, in which many perished by terrible and hitherto unheard-of deaths. The Christian converts besought Peter not to expose his life. As he fled along the Appian Way, about two miles from the gates, he was met by a vision of our Saviour travelling towards the city. Struck with amazement, he exclaimed, 'Lord, whither goest thou?' to which the Saviour, looking upon him with a mild sadness, replied, 'I go to Rome to be crucified a second time,' and vanished. Peter, taking this as a sign that he was to submit himself to the sufferings prepared for him, immediately turned back to the city.[201] Michael Angelo's famous statue, now in the Church of Sta. Maria sopra Minerva, is supposed to represent Christ as he appeared to St. Peter on this occasion. A cast or copy of it is in the little church of 'Domine, quo vadis?' "It is surprising that this most beautiful, picturesque, and, to my fancy, sublime legend, has been so seldom treated; and never, as it seems to me, in a manner worthy of its capabilities and high significance. It is seldom that a story can be told by two figures, and these two figures placed in such grand and dramatic contrast;--Christ in His serene majesty, and radiant with all the joy of beatitude, yet with an expression of gentle reproach; the Apostle at his feet arrested in his flight, amazed, and yet filled with a trembling joy; and for the background the wide Campagna, or towering walls of imperial Rome."--_Mrs. Jameson._[202] Beyond the church is a second "Bivium," or cross-ways, where a lane on the left leads up the Valle Caffarelle. Here, feeling an uncertainty _which_ was the crossing where Our Saviour appeared to St. Peter, the English Cardinal Pole erected a second tiny chapel of "Domine Quo Vadis," which remains to this day. On the left, is the _Columbarium of the Freedmen of Augustus and Livia_, divided into three chambers, but despoiled of its adornments. Other Columbaria near this are assigned to the Volusii, and the Cæcilii. Over the wall on the left of the Via Appia now hangs in profusion the rare yellow-berried ivy. Many curious plants are to be found on these old Roman walls. Their commonest parasite, the Pellitory--"_herba parietina_," calls to mind the nickname given to the Emperor Trajan in derision of his passion for inscribing his name upon the walls of Roman buildings which he had merely restored, as if he were their founder;[203] a passion in which the popes have since largely participated. We now reach (on the right) the entrance of the _Catacombs of St. Calixtus_.