Besides, It Is So Narrow That Two Modern Carriages
Could Not Pass One Another Upon It, Without The Most Imminent
Hazard Of Being Overturned.
I am still of opinion that we excel
the ancient Romans in understanding the conveniences of life.
The Grand Tour says, that within four miles of Rome you see a
tomb on the roadside, said to be that of Nero, with sculpture in
basso-relievo at both ends. I did see such a thing more like a
common grave-stone, than the tomb of an emperor. But we are
informed by Suetonius, that the dead body of Nero, who slew
himself at the villa of his freedman, was by the care of his two
nurses and his concubine Atta, removed to the sepulchre of the
Gens Domitia, immediately within the Porta del Popolo, on your
left hand as you enter Rome, precisely on the spot where now
stands the church of S. Maria del Popolo. His tomb was even
distinguished by an epitaph, which has been preserved by
Gruterus. Giacomo Alberici tells us very gravely in his History
of the Church, that a great number of devils, who guarded the
bones of this wicked emperor, took possession, in the shape of
black ravens, of a walnut-tree, which grew upon the spot;
from whence they insulted every passenger, until pope Paschal II.,
in consequence of a solemn fast and a revelation, went thither
in procession with his court and cardinals, cut down the tree,
and burned it to ashes, which, with the bones of Nero, were
thrown into the Tyber:
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