Note 492 — Chapter XXV
Reading edition
This relic is still shown in the Church of St. Ambrose at Milan. It used to be the popular notion that it would hiss at the end of the world. The history of the Milan "relic" is that a Milanese envoy to the court of the Emperor John Zimisces at Constantinople chose it from the imperial treasures, being assured that it was made of the same metal that Hezekiah had broken up (Sigonius, Hist. Regn. Ital., vii.). It is probably a symbol used by some ophite sect. See Dean Plumptre, Dict. of Bibl., s.v. "Serpent."