John 13:34; Luke 22:33; Matthew 26:53; various verses in Acts regarding Peter's locations; 1 Peter 5:13; Acts 21:8-9; Hebrews 13:14; 1 Peter 3:8. Sir William Ramsay, the great Christian archaeologist, conjectured that Hebrews was written by Philip the Deacon (Acts 21:8). Christian legend suggests that Philip's daughters (Acts 21:9) delighted in collecting accounts of the early days of Christianity; and that, as elderly women, they shared these accounts with Christians of the next generation. I do not know that Paul died the day before Peter; I simply suggest it. Although contemporary accounts of Peter's death (which Christ prophesied in John 21), and his request to be crucified upside down, are not Scriptural, I have relied upon them for the conclusion of the poem.
The request to place the crosspiece upside down is accurate to the extent that scholars have suggested that the uprights were permanently planted, awaiting only the crosspieces to be affixed. In this case, it probably was affixed lower than the suppedaneum.
