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The Presence of the Apostle Peter in Rome
The claim that the Apostle Peter lived, ministered, and died in Rome is foundational to the Roman Catholic understanding of papal primacy. While the New Testament does not directly document Peter’s presence in Rome, a convergence of biblical inference, patristic testimony, liturgical tradition, archaeological findings, and even hostile pagan acknowledgment provides a compelling historical case. In contrast to the often contradictory traditions surrounding other apostles’ fates, the claim regarding Peter in Rome stands out for its consistency, antiquity, and geographical reach.
Biblical Foundations and Limitations
The New Testament offers no explicit account of Peter traveling to or dying in Rome. However, a few indirect references are suggestive when read in light of early tradition.
In 1 Peter 5:13, the author writes, “She who is at Babylon, who is likewise chosen, sends you greetings, and so does Mark, my son.” Early Christian commentators consistently interpreted “Babylon” as a code word for Rome, especially in contexts involving persecution (cf. Revelation 17:5–9). The use of this term reflects Jewish apocalyptic symbolism, where Rome is portrayed as the oppressive imperial power.[1]
Though not definitive, this reference supports the plausibility of Peter’s Roman ministry, particularly when considered alongside early post-biblical testimony.
Early Christian Testimony
1. Clement of Rome (fl. c. A.D. 96)
Clement’s First Epistle to the Corinthians, written from Rome, refers to the martyrdoms of Peter and Paul:
“Peter, through unrighteous envy, endured not one or two, but many labors; and thus having borne testimony, went to his appointed place of glory.”[2]
While he does not mention the city explicitly, the letter is written from Rome, and both apostles are presented as exemplars for the Roman Christian community.
2. Ignatius of Antioch (c. 35–107 AD)
On his journey to martyrdom in Rome, Ignatius wrote to the Roman Church:
“Not as Peter and Paul did, do I command you [Romans]. They were apostles, and I am a convict.” (Letter to the Romans 4:3)[3]
This statement presupposes the Roman Church’s direct connection with Peter and Paul, recognizing their apostolic authority and ministry in the city.
3. Dionysius of Corinth (c. 170)
Quoted by Eusebius, Dionysius affirms:
“They taught together in like manner in Italy, and were martyred at the same time.”[4]
This testimony, from a Greek bishop, offers independent regional support for the Roman tradition.
4. Irenaeus of Lyons (c. 130–202)
In Against Heresies, Irenaeus offers one of the most explicit early attestations:
“Matthew also issued a written Gospel among the Hebrews in their own dialect, while Peter and Paul were preaching at Rome and laying the foundations of the Church.”[5]
He also identifies Linus—mentioned in 2 Timothy 4:21—as the first bishop of Rome after the apostles:
“The blessed apostles, having founded and built up the Church [in Rome], committed into the hands of Linus the office of the episcopate.”[6]
5. Tertullian (c. 160–225)
Tertullian, writing in North Africa, affirms that Peter died in Rome in a manner resembling Christ:
“Where Peter endured a passion like his Lord’s.”[7]
This is the earliest extant reference to the tradition of Peter’s crucifixion upside down.
6. Caius the Roman Presbyter (early 3rd century)
Caius appeals to the physical presence of Peter and Paul’s tombs in Rome:
“I can show you the trophies of the Apostles. For if you will go to the Vatican or to the Ostian Way, you will find the trophies of those who founded this Church.”[8]
This statement, made to refute the Montanists, confirms that Peter’s burial site was already marked and venerated in early third-century Rome.
7. Eusebius of Caesarea (c. 260–339)
Eusebius, citing Origen, records:
“Peter appears to have preached through Pontus, Galatia, Bithynia, Cappadocia, and Asia… and finally, having come to Rome, was crucified head-downwards.”[9]
Though later, Eusebius bases his account on earlier traditions widely accepted throughout the Mediterranean world.
Pagan and Non-Christian Testimony
While no first-century pagan authors explicitly name Peter, several non-Christian sources confirm the environment of persecution in Rome during Nero’s reign, which early Christians consistently identified as the context of Peter’s death.
1. Tacitus (Annals 15.44)
Tacitus, a Roman historian writing in the early second century, records that Nero falsely blamed Christians for the Great Fire of Rome in 64 A.D.:
“Nero fastened the guilt and inflicted the most exquisite tortures on a class hated for their abominations, called Christians by the populace…”
This testimony, though hostile, confirms both the existence of a substantial Christian population in Rome and their persecution under Nero, aligning with Christian tradition surrounding Peter’s martyrdom.
2. Suetonius and Pliny the Younger
Suetonius, in Life of Nero 16, writes: “Punishment was inflicted on the Christians, a class of men given to a new and mischievous superstition.” Similarly, Pliny the Younger, in his Letters (10.96) to Emperor Trajan, describes interrogating and executing Christians in Bithynia in the early second century.
While neither author mentions Peter, both verify the legal and social hostility toward Christians under Roman rule. Their writings support the historical plausibility of the martyrdoms of Peter and Paul in a time of imperial suspicion and persecution.
3. Julian the Apostate (c. 331–363 A.D.)
In his polemical work Three Books Against the Galileans, the pagan Roman emperor Julian the Apostate refers to the tomb of Peter in Rome as a site of Christian worship. Though writing in hostility toward Christianity, Julian inadvertently confirms that Peter’s tomb was recognized and venerated by the mid-fourth century, and that it was a prominent feature of Christian devotion within the capital of the empire.[10]
This acknowledgment by a known enemy of Christianity adds an external and independent witness to the longstanding tradition of Peter’s Roman burial.
Archaeological and Liturgical Evidence
1. The Vatican Necropolis and Peter’s Tomb
Between 1940 and 1949, excavations authorized by Pope Pius XII uncovered a first-century necropolis beneath St. Peter’s Basilica, centered around a shrine known as the Trophy of Gaius—likely the structure mentioned by the presbyter Caius in the early 3rd century.
Beneath the shrine was a simple grave, next to a red-painted wall (the “Graffiti Wall”) containing Christian inscriptions, including one interpreted as “Petros eni” (“Peter is here”). In a marble-lined niche nearby, archaeologists discovered bones wrapped in purple and gold cloth. These remains, stored apart from the main communal tombs, were interpreted by Vatican archaeologist Margherita Guarducci to be those of the Apostle Peter. She based this on the location, inscriptions, and historical continuity of veneration.
In 1968, Pope Paul VI announced that the relics had been identified “in a way which we believe convincing.”[11]
2. Liturgical and Historical Continuity
The Liber Pontificalis, though compiled in the fourth to sixth centuries, asserts that Peter served as bishop in Rome for 25 years and was martyred under Nero. This matches early Christian calendars, such as the Depositio Martyrum (c. 354), which marked June 29 as the feast day of Peter and Paul. This suggests an uninterrupted memory and veneration of Peter’s burial site from at least the mid-second century.
Absence of Contrary Testimony and Comparison with Other Apostolic Traditions
Remarkably, no early Christian source ever claims that Peter ministered or died elsewhere. This silence is significant, especially when contrasted with traditions surrounding other apostles.
For example, traditions about Thomas place him in India, Persia, or Parthia—often with conflicting details. Andrew is said to have preached in Scythia or Achaia, Bartholomew in Armenia or Arabia, and Philip in Phrygia or Syria. These claims are often late and regional, based on apocryphal sources or local legend. Even John’s association with Ephesus, while more credible and attested by Irenaeus and Polycrates, is not as geographically universal or as early as the Peter-in-Rome tradition.
By contrast, Peter’s association with Rome is consistently affirmed across East and West, by sources from Rome, Gaul, Asia Minor, and Africa, without rival claim or contradiction. The sheer uniformity and antiquity of this tradition make it historically exceptional among apostolic traditions.
Conclusion
While the New Testament does not directly state that Peter went to Rome, the convergence of early Christian testimony, supportive archaeological discoveries, pagan references, and the complete lack of contrary ancient claims make a strong historical case. In contrast to the speculative and often contradictory traditions surrounding the other apostles, Peter’s Roman ministry and martyrdom stand out as one of the most historically well-attested facts of early Christianity. The enduring memory of Peter’s tomb, venerated in the very heart of imperial Rome and recognized even by Christianity’s enemies, underscores his central role in the origins of the Roman Church.
Footnotes
Raymond E. Brown, Introduction to the New Testament (Anchor Yale, 1997), 705.
Clement of Rome, 1 Clement 5:4–6, in The Apostolic Fathers, ed. Bart D. Ehrman (Loeb Classical Library, 2003).
Ignatius of Antioch, Letter to the Romans 4:3, in J.B. Lightfoot & J.R. Harmer, The Apostolic Fathers (Baker, 1989).
Eusebius, Ecclesiastical History 2.25.8, quoting Dionysius of Corinth.
Irenaeus, Against Heresies 3.1.1; cf. 3.3.2, ANF Vol. I.
Ibid., 3.3.3.
Tertullian, Prescription Against Heretics 36, ANF Vol. III.
Eusebius, Ecclesiastical History 2.25.7, quoting Caius.
Eusebius, Ecclesiastical History 3.1.1–2, quoting Origen.
Julian the Apostate, Against the Galileans, in Julian’s Against the Galileans (Prometheus Books, 2004).
Margherita Guarducci, The Tomb of St. Peter (Hawthorn Books, 1960); John Evangelist Walsh, The Bones of St. Peter (Doubleday, 1982).
Bible Verses:
1 Peter 5:13
“Your sister church in Babylon, chosen together with you, sends you greetings; and so does my son Mark.”
(Peter indicates that he is writing from “Babylon”, which was a first-century code word for the city of Rome because it was pagan at the time and persecuted Christians.)
Church Father Quotes:
Ignatius of Antioch (35-107 A.D.)
“Not as Peter and Paul did, do I command you [Romans]. They were apostles, and I am a convict” (Letter to the Romans 4:3 [A.D. 110]).
Dionysius of Corinth (ca. 171 A.D.)
“You [Pope Soter] have also, by your very admonition, brought together the planting that was made by Peter and Paul at Rome and at Corinth; for both of them alike planted in our Corinth and taught us; and both alike, teaching similarly in Italy, suffered martyrdom at the same time” (Letter to Pope Soter [A.D. 170], in Eusebius, History of the Church 2:25:8).
Irenaeus of Lyons (130-202 A.D.)
“Matthew also issued among the Hebrews a written Gospel in their own language, while Peter and Paul were evangelizing in Rome and laying the foundation of the Church” (Against Heresies, 3, 1:1 [A.D. 189]).
“But since it would be too long to enumerate in such a volume as this the succession of all the churches, we shall confound all those who, in whatever manner, whether through self-satisfaction or vainglory, or through blindness and wicked opinion, assemble other than where it is proper, by pointing out here the succession of the bishops of the greatest and most ancient church known to all, founded and organized at Rome by the two most glorious apostles, Peter and Paul, that church which has the tradition and the faith which comes down to us after having been announced to men by the apostles. With that church [of Rome], because of its superior origin, all the churches must agree, that is, all the faithful in the whole world, and it is in her that the faithful everywhere have maintained the apostolic tradition” (ibid., 3, 3, 2).
“The blessed apostles [Peter and Paul], having founded and built up the church [of Rome], they handed over the office of the episcopate to Linus. Paul makes mention of this Linus in the letter to Timothy [2 Tim. 4:21]. To him succeeded Anacletus, and after him, in the third place from the apostles, Clement was chosen for the episcopate. He had seen the blessed apostles and was acquainted with them. It might be said that he still heard the echoes of the preaching of the apostles and had their traditions before his eyes. And not only he, for there were many still remaining who had been instructed by the apostles. In the time of Clement, no small dissension having arisen among the brethren in Corinth, the church in Rome sent a very strong letter to the Corinthians, exhorting them to peace and renewing their faith. . . . To this Clement, Evaristus succeeded . . . and now, in the twelfth place after the apostles, the lot of the episcopate [of Rome] has fallen to Eleutherius. In this order, and by the teaching of the apostles handed down in the Church, the preaching of the truth has come down to us” (ibid., 3, 3, 3).
Caius (or Gaius), Presbyter of Rome (ca. 200 A.D.)
“It is recorded that Paul was beheaded in Rome itself, and Peter, likewise, was crucified, during the reign [of the Emperor Nero]. The account is confirmed by the names of Peter and Paul over the cemeteries there, which remain to the present time. And it is confirmed also by a stalwart man of the Church, Gaius by name, who lived in the time of Zephyrinus, bishop of Rome. This Gaius, in a written disputation with Proclus, the leader of the sect of Cataphrygians, says this of the places in which the remains of the aforementioned apostles were deposited: ‘I can point out the trophies of the apostles. For if you are willing to go to the Vatican or to the Ostian Way, you will find the trophies of those who founded this Church’” (Disputation with Proclus [A.D. 198] in Eusebius, Church History 2:25:5).
The Little Labyrinth (A lost treatise written in 211 A.D.)
“Victor . . . was the thirteenth bishop of Rome from Peter” –The Little Labyrinth (Written in 211 A.D. by unknown author, sometimes attributed to Caius, a Presbyter of Rome. It is quoted by Eusebius in “Church History” 5:28:3).
Clement of Alexandria (150-215 A.D.)
“The circumstances which occasioned . . . [the writing] of Mark were these: When Peter preached the Word publicly at Rome and declared the gospel by the Spirit, many who were present requested that Mark, who had been a long time his follower and who remembered his sayings, should write down what had been proclaimed” (Sketches [A.D. 200], in a fragment from Eusebius, History of the Church, 6, 14:1).
Tertullian of Carthage (155-240 A.D.)
“But if you are near Italy, you have Rome, where authority is at hand for us too. What a happy church that is, on which the apostles poured out their whole doctrine with their blood; where Peter had a passion like that of the Lord, where Paul was crowned with the death of John [the Baptist, by being beheaded]” (Demurrer Against the Heretics 36 [A.D. 200]).
“Let us see what milk the Corinthians drained from Paul; against what standard the Galatians were measured for correction; what the Philippians, Thessalonians, and Ephesians read; what even the nearby Romans sound forth, to whom both Peter and Paul bequeathed the gospel and even sealed it with their blood” (Against Marcion 4, 5:1 [A.D. 210]).
The Poem Against the Marcionites (267 A.D.)
“In this chair in which he himself had sat, Peter in mighty Rome commanded Linus, the first elected, to sit down. After him, Cletus too accepted the flock of the fold. As his successor, Anacletus was elected by lot. Clement follows him, well-known to apostolic men. After him Evaristus ruled the flock without crime. Alexander, sixth in succession, commends the fold to Sixtus” (Poem Against the Marcionites 276–284 [A.D. 267]).
Arnobius of Sicca (Died 330 A.D.)
“For the deeds can be reckoned up and numbered which have been done in India, among the Seres, Persians, and Medes; in Arabia, Egypt, in Asia, Syria; among the Galatians, Parthians, Phrygians; in Achaia, Macedonia, Epirus; in all islands and provinces on which the rising and setting sun shines; in Rome herself, finally, the mistress of the world, in which, although men are busied with the practices introduced by king Numa, and the superstitious observances of antiquity, they have nevertheless hastened to give up their fathers’ mode of life, and attach themselves to Christian truth. For they had seen the chariot of Simon Magus, and his fiery car, blown into pieces by the mouth of Peter, and vanish when Christ was named.” -Against the Heathen 2:12. (Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol. 6. Translated by Hamilton Bryce and Hugh Campbell. Edited by Alexander Roberts, James Donaldson, and A. Cleveland Coxe. Buffalo, NY: Christian Literature Publishing Co., 1886.)
Eusebius of Caesarea (260-340 A.D.)
“In the second year of the two hundredth and fifth Olympiad, The apostle Peter, after he had established the church in Antioch, is sent to Rome, where he remains as a bishop of that city, preaching the gospel for twenty-five years.” – The Chronicle (Written 303 A.D.)
“The holy Apostles and disciples of the Savior were scattered throughout the whole world. Thomas, as tradition holds, received Parthia (modern Iran) by lot. Andrew, Scythia (Eurasia). John, Asia (Turkey), busying himself among the people there until he died at Ephesus. Peter preached to the Jews of the diaspora in Pontus and Galatia… and at last, having come to Rome, he was crucified head downwards, which he himself thought was fitting to suffer. Is it necessary to say anything of Paul, who. . in the time of Nero was martyred in Rome?” –Ecclesiastical History 3:1:1 (Written in 312 A.D.)
Peter I of Alexandria (martyred 311 A.D.)
“Peter, the first chosen of the apostles, having been apprehended often and thrown into prison and treated with ignominy, at last was crucified in Rome” (Penance, canon 9 [A.D. 306]).
“When Nero was already reigning, Peter came to Rome, where, in virtue of the performance of certain miracles which he worked . . . he converted many to righteousness and established a firm and steadfast temple to God. When this fact was reported to Nero . . . Peter he fixed to a cross, and Paul he slew” (The Deaths of the Persecutors 2:5 [A.D. 318]).
Cyril of Jerusalem (313-386 A.D.)
“[Simon Magus] so deceived the city of Rome that Claudius erected a statue of him. . . .While the error was extending itself, Peter and Paul arrived, a noble pair and the rulers of the Church, and they set the error aright. . . . [T]hey launched the weapon of their like-mindedness in prayer against the Magus, and struck him down to earth. It was marvelous enough, and yet no marvel at all, for Peter was there—he that carries about the keys of heaven” (Catechetical Lectures 6:14 [A.D. 350]).
Optatus of Milevis (320-385 A.D.)
“You cannot deny that you are aware that in the city of Rome the episcopal chair was given first to Peter; the chair in which Peter sat, the same who was head—that is why he is also called Cephas [‘Rock’]—of all the apostles; the one chair in which unity is maintained by all” (The Schism of the Donatists 2:2 [A.D. 367]).
Epiphanius of Salamis (313-403 A.D.)
“At Rome the first apostles and bishops were Peter and Paul, then Linus, then Cletus, then Clement, the contemporary of Peter and Paul” (Medicine Chest Against All Heresies 27:6 [A.D. 375]).
“Likewise it is decreed: . . . [W]e have considered that it ought to be announced that although all the Catholic churches spread abroad through the world comprise one bridal chamber of Christ, nevertheless, the holy Roman Church has been placed at the forefront not by the conciliar decisions of other churches, but has received the primacy by the evangelic voice of our Lord and Savior, who says: ‘You are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my Church, and the gates of hell will not prevail against it; and I will give to you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you shall have bound on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you shall have loosed on earth shall be loosed in heaven’ [Matt. 16:18–19]. The first see, therefore, is that of Peter the apostle, that of the Roman Church, which has neither stain nor blemish nor anything like it.
“In addition to this, there is also the companionship of the vessel of election, the most blessed apostle Paul, who contended and was crowned with a glorious death along with Peter in the city of Rome in the time of Caesar Nero. . . . They equally consecrated the above-mentioned holy Roman Church to Christ the Lord; and by their own presence and by their venerable triumph they set it at the forefront over the others of all the cities of the whole world” (Decree of Damasus 3 [A.D. 382]).
Rufinus of Aquileia (344-411 A.D.)
“Linus and Cletus were Bishops of the city of Rome before Clement. How then, some men ask, can Clement in his letter to James say that Peter passed over to him his position as a church-teacher. The explanation of this point, as I understand, is as follows. Linus and Cletus were, no doubt, Bishops in the city of Rome before Clement, but this was in Peter’s life-time; that is, they took charge of the episcopal work, while he discharged the duties of the apostolate. He is known to have done the same thing at Cæsarea; for there, he had at his side Zacchæus whom he had ordained as Bishop.” –To Bishop Gaudentius: Preface to the Books of Recognitions of St. Clement (Written ca 405)
Jerome of Stridon (347-420 A.D.)
“Simon Peter, the son of John, from the village of Bethsaida in the province of Galilee, brother of Andrew the apostle, and himself chief of the apostles, after having been bishop of the church of Antioch and having preached to the Dispersion . . . pushed on to Rome in the second year of Claudius to overthrow Simon Magus, and held the sacerdotal chair there for twenty-five years until the last, that is the fourteenth, year of Nero. At his hands he received the crown of martyrdom being nailed to the cross with his head towards the ground and his feet raised on high, asserting that he was unworthy to be crucified in the same manner as his Lord” (Lives of Illustrious Men 1 [A.D. 396]).
Augustine of Hippo (354-430 A.D.)
“If all men throughout the world were such as you most vainly accuse them of having been, what has the chair of the Roman church done to you, in which Peter sat, and in which Anastasius sits today?” (Against the Letters of Petilani 2:118 [A.D. 402]).
Non-Catholic Quotes:
D.A. Carson, Protestant scholar
“in Rome about 63 (the probable date of 1 Peter). Eusebius implies that Peter was in Rome during the reign of Claudius, who died in 54 (H.E. 2.14.6)” (An Introduction to the New Testament, 180).
Oscar Cullman, Lutheran scholar
“The excavations speak in favor of the report that the execution of Peter took place in the Vatican district (152.)
Oxford Dictionary of Saints
“it is probable that the tomb is authentic. It is also significant that Rome is the only city that ever claimed to be Peter’s place of death”
Artemon (a heretical 2nd century teacher in Rome, who held Adoptionist non-Trinitarian views.)
Eusebius of Caesarea states that Artemon and his followers claimed their views were held by the early Church in Rome and the Bishops who succeeded Peter:
“For they say that all the early teachers and the apostles received and taught what they now declare, and that the truth of the Gospel was preserved until the times of Victor, who was the thirteenth bishop of Rome from Peter, but that from his successor, Zephyrinus, the truth had been corrupted. And what they say might be plausible, if first of all the Divine Scriptures did not contradict them. And there are writings of certain brethren older than the times of Victor, which they wrote in behalf of the truth against the heathen, and against the heresies which existed in their day. I refer to Justin (Martyr), and Miltiades, and Tatian and Clement (of Alexandria) and many others, in all of whose works Christ is spoken of as God. For who does not know the works of Irenaeus and of Melito (of Sardis) and of others which teach that Christ is God and man? And how many psalms and hymns, written by the faithful brethren from the beginning, celebrate Christ the Word of God, speaking of Him as Divine. How then since the opinion held by the Church has been preached for so many years, can its preaching have deen delayed as they affirm, until the times of Victor? -Eusebius in “Ecclesiastical History” Book V, Chapter XXVIII