sally realized she was walking the same road as all the sandled feet of early christians heading for their secret catacombs , which in fact now surrounded her ; over the same stones as the caesars being hailed ; as the toga-clad citizens going to their suburban villas ; as the slaves carrying baskets of produce on their heads ; as all the saints , sinners , and revolutionaries : hannibal , charlemagne , spartacus , cleopatra , the borgheses , garibaldi , mussolini , nazi tanks , allied jeeps ... .all of it rose up from the bottoms of the soles of her feet and shaky knees , straight into her stomach with a blow struck with the weight of more than 200 centuries .