Elio Callistio, a freedman of Emperor Hadrian, would have never imagined that his then fashionable, temple-shaped sepulcher would become popular in Roman folklore. Indeed, as the sepulcher fell to ruins, it strangely started assuming the shape of a great chair or throne. Wayfarers and others who maintained seedy reputations were said to lurk in its shadows and light mysterious fires. This often gave the ruins a glowing appearance amid the night sky. According to legends from the Middle Ages, the Devil used the ruins as a throne and caused its…
