[3] The identification between tree and monument implied that the site of the martyrdom of Saint Peter was placed either between the Terebinthus and the Meta Romuli, or between the latter and the obelisk of the Circus of Nero (and in some medieval description the monument itself is named "obelisk of Nero"),[1] or in the mid-point between the two pyramids (ad Terebinthus inter duas metas...in Vaticano) and consequently the Terebinthus (either as monument or as tree) was for a long time a popular subject in the depictions of Saint Peter's martyrdom and in the representations of the city in the Middle Ages.

[8] Some examples are the Stefaneschi Polyptych by Giotto;[9] a polyptych by Jacopo di Cione; one tile of Filarete's Bronze Doors in Old St. Peter's Basilica; the frescoes on the vaults of the Basilica of San Francesco in Assisi by Cimabue;[8][10] and possibly the fresco of The Vision of the Cross in Raphael's Rooms in the Vatican.

have very little in common with its real appearance[1] Based on the middle age descriptions, it has been hypothesized that the terebinthus was a tomb of tumulus type, like the so-called tomb of the Curiatii at the beginning of the 6th mile of the Appian Way;[12] In this case, the circular monument was composed of a large plinth tiled with travertine; above it, there was a tumulus of earth surmounted with a cylinder in masonry.

[12] They belonged either to the drain at the base of the monument, or to the plinth covering; in the latter case, the groove with dovetail recesses has to be interpreted as the interlocking of a balustrade.

[12] The location of the terebinth resulting from the excavations of 1948–49, northwest of the Meta Romuli, is in contradiction with that given by all the middle age descriptions, which say that the monument lay northeast of the pyramid.