in nomine Dei tui vel uno anno ab interfectione generis humani cessare."[1]
St. Peter appeared to Silvester in a dream and advised
him to close his door to the underworld with chains, according
to the model in Revelation, chap, xx:
(1) "And I saw an angel come down from heaven, having the
key of the bottomless pit, and a great chain in his hand.
(2) "And he laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, which is the Devil and Satan, and bound him a thousand years.
(3) "And cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal upon him."
The anonymous author of a writing, "De Promissionibus,"[75]
of the beginning of the fifth century, mentions a
very similar legend:
"Apud urbem Romam specus quidam fuit in quo draco miræ
magnitudinis mechanica arte formatus, gladium ore gestans,[76]
oculis rutilantibus gemmis[77] metuendus ac terribilis apparebat.
Hinc annuæ devotæ virgines floribus exornatæ, eo modo in sacrificio
dabantur, quatenus inscias munera deferentes gradum
scalæ, quo certe ille arte diaboli draco pendebat, contingentes impetus
venientis gladii perimeret, ut sanguinem funderet innocentem.
Et hunc quidam monachus, bene ob meritum cognitus
Stiliconi tunc patricio, eo modo subvertit; baculo, manu, singulos
gradus palpandos inspiciens, statim ut illum tangens fraudem
- ↑ There was a huge dragon on Mount Tarpeius, where the Capitolium stands. Once a month, with sacrilegious maidens, the priests descended 365 steps into the hell of this dragon, carrying expiatory offerings of food for the dragon. Then the dragon suddenly and unexpectedly arose, and, though he did not come out, he poisoned the air with his breath. Thence came the mortality of man and the deepest sorrow for the death of the children. When, for the defence of truth, St. Silvester had had a conflict with the heathen, it came to this that the heathen said: "Silvester, go down to the dragon, and in the name of thy God make him desist from the killing of mankind."
