Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 3.djvu/841

Rh SIMON. Socraticorum Epistolae is written ifl the name of Simon, and professes to be addressed to Aristip- pus, 2/m«*>j' kpiar'nrTrcf, Simon Aristippo. [Aris- Tippus.] The concluding passage of it is cited by Stobaeus, in his 'AvdoXoyiov, Florilegium, xvii. Tlepl eyKpardas, De Conti7ientia^ § 11. A trans- lation of this letter is given in Stanley's Hist, of Philosophy, part iii. p. 119, ed. 1655 — 1660, p. 125, ed, 1743. {A?iim&, De Simeonum Scriptis, p. 197 ; Fabric. Bibl. Graec. vol. i. p, 693, vol. ii. p. 719, ed. Harles.) 4. Cananites, Cananaeus, or Zelotes (Ka- vavirris, Kayavaios, a. ZtjAwttj?), one of the twelve Apostles. There are extant in MSS. under his name certain Kavoves €KKf(TiaaTiKoi^ Canones Ecclesiastici. (Lambec. Comment, de Bibliolh. Cae- saraea, vol. viii. p. 906, ed. Kollar ; Bandini, Ca- talog. Codd. MStorum, Medic. Laurent, vol. i. pp. 396, 468.) 5. CONSTANTINOPOLITANUS. [No. 22.] 6. CORIARIUS. [No. 3.] 7. Cretensis. [No. 22.] 8. Gyracii Episcopus. [No. 22.] 9. HiEROMONACHUS. [No. 22.] 10. HipPiATRicus s. De Arte Veterinaria ScRiPTOR. Several ancient authors refer to or quote from Simon, a writer on horses, and, in most cases, in terms which show that his thorough ac- quaintance with the subject had rendered him quite an authority on such matters. He is first men- tioned by Xenophon {De Re Equestri, c. i. 1, 3, c. xi. 6), according to whom he dedicated the brazen statue of a horse, in the Eleusinium at Athens ; and had engraved his own works (t(J 4avTov epya) on the base. This statue is also noticed by Hierocles, the veterinarian [Hierocles], whose description of the sculpture on the base does not agree with that of Xenophon (Artis Veterinariae Libri duo, ed. Basil. 1 537, p. 3). It is probable that Simon was an Athenian, from the place in which his offering was deposited ; and by Suidas, who has quoted Simon {s.v. TplWrj), he is expressly called an Athenian. According to Suidas {l. c.) Simon wrote, 'linroiaTpiKov, De Arte Veterinaria ; and if, which is probable, he is also mentioned by Suidas in two other places (s. vv. "Ai^vpTos and Kiixuv), where, however, the present reading is Kifiwv (Cimon), he also wrote 'i:ito(tkottik6v, De Equorum Inspectione. It may be doubted whether these were distinct works, or merely chapters or divisions of a more general treatise, TlspX iTnriKris, the title by which the works of Simon are cited by Xenophon. Ac- cording to Suidas, in one of the above places (s. v. Klfiojv), he was banished from Athens, by ostra- cism, on account of his having committed incest. Of the age of Simon we can only form an approxi- mate estimate. He was not earlier than the painter Micon, who lived about b.c. 460 [MicoN, artists, 1], for he criticised the works of tTiat artist (Pol- lux, Onomasticon, lib. ii. § 69) ; and he wrote, as we have seen, earlier than Xenophon, but how much earlier we have no means of knowing, except that his treatise had already acquired a good repu- tation. 11. Iacumakus or Iatumaeus. [No. 22.] 12. Maccabaeus. Of this eminent Jew an account is given elsewhere [Maccabaki, No. 3]. He is introduced here merely on account of an un- founded opinion of Michael de Medina, that he was the writer of the second book of the Maccabees. (AUat. De Simemum Script, p. 200.) SIMON. 829 13. Of Magnesia. [Sim us.] 14. MAGtJS. In the various accounts of this re- markable man, who hasbeen very commonly regarded as the earliest of the heretics that troubled the Chris- tian church, fable is so largely intermingled, that it is difficult to tell what truth there is in any thing re- ported of him, beyond the brief notice in the New Testament (Acts, viii. 9—13, 18—24). Accord- ing to Justin Martyr {Apolog. Prima, c. 26, p, 190, ed. Hefele), the next authority in point of time, and, from his being also a Samaritan by birth, pro- bably the next also in point of trustworthiness, Simon was a Samaritan, born in the village of Gitti or Gitthi ; riTTcoj/ or Fittwu in the Genitive, as Justin and Eusebius (H. E. ii. 13) write it, rirOai/, as Theodoret (Haeret. Fabul. Compend. i. 1) writes it. If, as some think, he is the Simon mentioned by Josephus {Ant Jud. xx. 7. § 2), he was, according to that writer, a Jew by religion and a Cyprian by birth. The discrepancy between this statement and that already cited it has been proposed to reconcile, by the supposition that Jus- tin's statement originated in the substitution or mistake of ViTri^vs for KjTTteus, and consequently that Simon was really a native of Cittium in Cyprus. But we are disposed to prefer the state- ment of Justin as it now stands, and to think that either Josephus was mistaken, or, which is more likely, that the Simon mentioned by him was a different person altogether. According to the ac- count in the Recognitiones and the Clementina of the pseudo Clemens [Clemens Romanus], which account is professedly given by Aquila, who had been a friend and disciple of Simon, the latter was the son of Antonius and Rachel, and was a native of the "vicus Gythorum," in the district of Samaria. He is described as well versed in Greek literature and in magic ; and as being vainglorious and boast- ful to an extraordinary degree. According to the same very dubious authorities, he had professed himself a follower of Dositheus, an heretical teacher who first promulgated his doctrines about the time of John the Baptist's death, and who was accom- panied by a female, whom he designated Luna, " the Moon," and by a chosen band of disciples, whose number, thirty, corresponded to the number of days in a lunar month. Into this chosen number, on a vacancy occurring, Simon obtained admission. According to the Clementina Simon had studied at Alexandria, and both he and Dositheus had been disciples of John the Baptist. In the same work we find also many fabulous tales about Simon ; but it is likely that the representation, which we find in this work, that Simon was first the disciple and afterwards the successor of Dositheus, as the leader of a sect, is founded on truth (comp. Origen, In Matthaeum Commentar. c. 33. s. ut alii, tract, xxvii.. Contra Celsum, lib. i. c. 57, lib. vi. c. 11, Periarchon, s. De Principiis, lib. iv. c. 1 7, ed. Dela- rue ; Euseb. //. E. iv. 22). In the Constitutiones Apostolicae (lib. vi. c. 8) Simon is represented as a disciple of Dositheus, and as having, with the aid of a fellow-disciple, Cleobius, deprived hira of his leadership. These notices furnish nearly all that is reported of Simon previous to the time at which the deacon Philip met him at a Samaritan city, of which, the name is not given, and those transactions occurred which are noticed in the New Testa- ment (/. c), and which need not be repeated here. The latter part of Simon's career appears to hava