At the time Constantine reigned with Irene his mother, there was found in an ancient sepulchre in Constantinople, a body with a plate of gold upon the breast of it, and thereon thus engraven.—In Christum credoqui ex Mariâ Virgine nescetor: O Sol, imperantibus Constantino & Irene interrem me videbus: that is, I believe in that Christ who shall be born of Mary a Virgin: O Sun thou shall see me again, when Constantine and Irene shall come to reign.—When this inscription had been publicly read, the body was restored to the same place where it had been formerly buried.
The sepulchre of the great Cyrus, king of Persia, was violated in the days of Alexander the Great, in such a manner, that his bones were displaced and thrown out, and the urn of gold that was fixed in his coffin, when it could not be wholly pulled away, was broken off by parcels. When Alexander was informed hereof, he caused the Magi, who were intrusted with the care and keeping thereof, to be exposed unto tortures, to make them confess the authors of so great a violation and robbery: but they denied with great constancy that they had any hand in it, or that they knew by whom it was done. Plutarch says, that it was one Polymachus, a noble Pellean, that was guilty of so great a crime. It is said, that the epitaph of this mighty monarch was to this purpose.
O mortal that comest hither (for come I know thou wilt) know that I am Cyrus the son of Cambyses, who settled the Persian Empire, and ruled over Asia, and therefore envy me not this little heap of earth, where-with my body is covered.
Not long since, at Bononiæ, in the church of St. Dominick, there was found the body of Alexander Tartagnus, a Lawyer at Imola, which was perfectly entire, and no way decayed, although it had lain there from his decease above one hundred and fifty years.
Pausanius makes mention of a soldier, whose body was found with wounds fresh, and apparent upon it, although it had been buried sixty two Olympiads, that is no less than two hundred and forty eight years.