The history of San Sabazio is linked to that of the Holy Martyrs Trophimus and Dorimedon, killed during the reign of Emperor Aurelius Probus (276-282). The passio in which the story of the three is told is considered dubious by scholars. It is said that Trophimus and Sabazio were in Antioch when they came across an edict from the emperor which forced Christians to sacrifice to the gods. Having refused to follow this practice, they were arrested, trialed and ferociously tortured, so much so that Sabazio died. Trophimus survived and was imprisoned, receiving visits from Dorimedon, a Christian senator who would soon be imprisoned with him for refusing to burn incense to the Dioscuri. Both were beheaded. Between reality and legend, the story of these three saints bears witness to the growing conversion to Christianity of princes and regents in the East, up to and including a Senator.

The tales of the statue in Dome’s building site:

The statue currently in use at the top of Guglia G36 is a reproduction dated 1987, whose author is unknown. Perhaps it is a marmorino from the Fabbrica, a hypothesis that also takes shape thanks to archive documents, which inform us that the original statue of San Sabazio Martire, a nineteenth-century work by Giuseppe Buzzi, was transported to the Cantiere Marmisti in 1907 to be reproduced.