冷気／寒がらせるd to the bone by Rome's darkest age

We were 50 feet beneath the earth in catacombs off the Appian Way, looking at a small 石／投石する 棺 a few feet away in the gloom.

Some 1,700 years before, St Sebastian - the one you see portrayed pierced by arrows - was 初めは laid to 残り／休憩（する） in this casket, not far from where the 団体／死体s of the disciples, Peter and Paul, were secreted 簡潔に during an 皇室の 迫害.

So where was he now? The archaeological guide pointed 直接／まっすぐに 上向きs, to the altar high above us at ground level in the baroque basilica. 'I can 保証する you,' she said 堅固に, 'that the bones that were here are the ones that are there, 権利 over our 長，率いるs.'

The cheery African 修道女 by my 味方する gasped, and made it （疑いを）晴らす she thought it was time to 長，率いる for the light of day.

Tales of 早期に 殉教者s, and the vivid 調印するs of their lives which we can see and touch today, often take a 支援する seat to Rome's glitzier attractions.

It's a shame. There are characters here that make Hannibal Lecter look like （頭が）ひょいと動く the 建設業者 . . . and you find them in the most 予期しない of places.

The Arch of Constantine, a wonderful piece of 勝利を得た architecture by the Colosseum, is a good starting point for a 黒人／ボイコット 小旅行する of Rome.

In the 4th Century Constantine turned pagan Rome over to Christianity and 覆うd the way for the 力／強力にする of the カトリック教徒 Church. He built the first basilica to honour St Peter. His mother, Helena, visited the 宗教上の Land, 恐らく bringing 支援する fragments of the true cross and staircase which Jesus climbed in Pilate's house, both of which can still be seen.

So why is one of the fathers of the modern church who 設立するd Istanbul as his own 資本／首都, Christian Constantinople, hardly known today? Because Constantine was also a 残虐な human 存在 who had his son 遂行する／発効させるd, probably for little 推論する／理由, and ordered his wife to be smothered to death in her baths.

明らかに he was unfailingly 肉親，親類d to Christians though - more than can be said of his pagan 前任者 Valerian.

Walk from the Colosseum to the 石／投石する boat which 示すs the 入り口 to the park of 郊外住宅 Celimontana and you begin the most shocking 殉教者's 旅行s in the world.

Imagine it is August in the year 258, 50 years before Constantine 征服する／打ち勝つd Rome. A Spanish Christian, Lawrence, is 手渡すing out money to the poor from the church's coffers.

Vlaerian, ever on the look-out for some money, wants his 株 and sends his 補佐官s to ask where the riches are.

Lawrence 迎える／歓迎するs them and points to the poor, 説, ' Here are the treasures of Rome.'

We can still follow in St Lawrence's footsteps. The guards dragged him to his 裁判，公判 through the cryptoporticus, the long 回廊（地帯） that runs through the 廃虚s of the Palatine hill.

In the church of San Lorenzo in Fonte you can see the 独房 where he was 拘留するd and the font he used to baptise his fellow 捕虜s.

San Lorenzo in Panisperna was built on the 場所／位置 of his grisly 殉教／苦難. Here he was roasted to death over a barbecue, an event portrayed in a fresco. He lies buried in the catacombs at San Lorenzo fuori le Mura.

In a small chapel in San LOrenzo in Lucina, off the 経由で Corso, is a barzier which looks like it's from a Roman feast. It was on this cruel 機械装置, legend has it, that San Lorenzo 満了する／死ぬd, after joking with his executioners to turn him over because he was done on one 味方する.

The 経由で Corso ジーンズs shops seem 不適切な after this, so hop on a bus to Trastevere , accross the river - a 週刊誌 ticket takes you on any tram, train or bus.

In the 小道／航路s to the south lies the pretty church of Santa Cecilia - a nobleman's wife who lived in a mansion on this 位置／汚点／見つけ出す.

When her Christian husband was 殉教者d she tried to bury his 団体／死体 and was 宣告，判決d to death by smothering in the baths of the house - a 運命／宿命 favoured for patrician women.

Cecilia failed to die, and still 生き残るd the 最大限 three blows of an axe which the 法律 許すd. Mortally 負傷させるd, she sang hymns, 変えるing many with her courage and became the patron saint of musicians. She was buried in what became the crypt of the church.

In 1599 her tomb was opened and her 団体／死体 設立する to be miraculously 井戸／弁護士席 保存するd. The sculptor Maderna made sketches of the shrouded 人物／姿／数字, then carved the effigy of a young human 人物／姿／数字 in a delicate shroud which now lies beneath the high altar, with three （疑いを）晴らす axe 示すs on its neck.

On the Clivus Scauri, a road 近づく the Colosseum, is the church of John and Paul. The two 兵士 殉教者s-were 恐らく beheaded with a friend in their house over which the 早期に church was built.

For centuries this seemed as 煙霧のかかった a tale as most of those surrounding the 殉教者s. Then in the 19th Century the 創立／基礎s were excavated, and in the lower levels - open with 許可 today - was 設立する a dwelling that had once been a place of Christian worship.

There were three 墓／厳粛／彫る／重大なs that had been the 支配する of some reverence. John and Paul, it seems, were no mere myths.

Some historians, however, argue that there is no hard 証拠 to 示唆する that St Peter - whose 刑務所，拘置所 'chains' can be seen in the church of San Pietro in Vincoli - was crucified in Rome or was the first ローマ法王.

Even ardent Christians would find it hard to understand why anyone would engineer their own excruciating end.

Look at the 塀で囲むs of Rome for an answer. Try the church of Santa Maria del Popolo, in the piazza o f the same 指名する which lies at the 長，率いる of the 経由で Corso and houses one of the finest Caravaggios.

In this depiction of Peter's 殉教／苦難, as he watches his executioners struggle to 築く the cross on which he will die, he shows no 恐れる - he knows that the raising of the cross is the raising of the 創立／基礎s of Christianity.

As theologian Tertullian put it a century later, 'the 血 of the 殉教者s is the seed of the Church'.

It was a prophetic message. A century after he died Constantine 始める，決める the 調印（する） on Christianity as the 公式の／役人 Roman 宗教, and that of the Western world to come.

Whatever your 宗教的な 説得／派閥s, it is hard not to stand in awe at the 示す these sacrifices make almost two millennia after they were made.

Travel facts Italiatour (01883 621900) 申し込む／申し出s short breaks to Rome. Two nights' b&b in a three-星／主役にする hotel costs from £169 含むing return scheduled flights from Gatwick. David Hewson's new novel, Lucifer's 影をつくる／尾行する, is published by Harper Collins, price £9.99.

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