Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 3.djvu/842

Rh 830 SIMON, been passed at Rome. Here, according to Justin Martyr {I. e. and c. 56), he arrived in the time of Claudius, and obtained such high credit, both with senate and people, as to have been accounted a god, and to have had' a statue erected to him h r^ TiSepi iroTafia, "in the river Tiber" (usually in- terpreted to mean, in the island formed by the division of the channel of the river), *' between the two bridges," with the inscription in Latin, simoni DEO SANCTO. The minuteness of Justin's de- scription, and his distinct appeal (c. 56) that the statue might be removed, render it difficult to dis- pute his statement ; yet the fact that an inscription existed in the island of the Tiber (where it was seen and read, a. d. 1662 by Marquardus Gudius), SEMONi SANCO DEO FiDio SACRUM, has given reason to suspect that Justin inadvertently mistook a statue of the Sabine deity, Semo Sancus or San- gus [Sancus Semo], to whom several inscriptions have been found, for one of Simon the Samaritan (Gruter, Inscriptiones^ vol. i. p. xcvi. No. 5, comp. 6, 7, 8, ed. Graev.). Irenaeus, who says it was re- ported that Claudius Caesar had erected a statue to Simon {Adv. Haeres. lib. i.c. 20), Tertullian {Apo- loget. c. 13), and the other fathers, who repeat the statement, can be regarded only as re-echoing the account of Justin (see, however. Burton, Bampton Lectures, note 42 ). Whether Simon ever encoun- tered Peter after their interview in the Samaritan city, cannot be determined : it is not impossible that they may have met, and that some conference or discussion may have taken place between them. The Recognitiones (lib. ii. &c.) and the Clementina (Hom. iii.) give a long report of disputations be- tween the two ; but the scene is laid at Caesaraea Palaestinae {Recog. i. 12 ; Clem. Hom. i. 15). The Constitutiones Apostolicae (lib. vi. c. 9) also place the conference at Caesaraea. According to the Clementina (Homil. iv. &c.), Simon, being overcome by Peter, fled from the Apostle, who, eager to renew the contest, followed his flying opponent from town to town along the Phoenician coast. According to an account which may be traced from Arnobius {Adv. Genles, ii. 7 ), through the Constitutiones Apostolicae (ibid, and lib. ii. c. 14), Cyril of Jerusalem (^. c), and later writers, Simon came to his death through another encounter with Peter ; for, having at Rome raised himself into the air, by the aid of evil spirits, he was, at the prayer of Peter and Paul, who were then at Rome, precipitated from a great height, and died from the consequences of his fall Whether this legend has any foundation in fact it is hard to say. Dr. Burton {Bampton Lectures, lect. iv. p. 94, and note) attempts to get some truth out of the indubitably fabulous circumstances with which the death of Simon has been interwoven. The ancient authorities for the history of Simon have been cited in the course of this article. Among modern writers Tillemont {Memoires, vol. ii. p. 35. &c), Ittigius {De Haei-esiarchis, sect. i. c. ii), Mo- sheira {De Rebus Christian, ante Constantinum, saec. i. §§ Ixvi. Ixvii), Burton {Bampton Lectures, lect. iv.), Milman {Hist, of Christ, vol. ii. p. 96, &c.). Simon is usually reckoned the first heresiarch : but the representation is not correct, if heresy be understood, in its modern acceptation, to mean a corrupted form of Christianity ; for Simon was not a Christian at all, except for a very short period, and his doctrines did not include any recognition of the claims of Jesus Christ, of whom Simon was not the disciple, but the rival. Origen is clear on SIMON, this point ; for, in reply to Celsus, who had con- founded the Simonians with the Christians, he says {Contra Cels. v. 62), "Celsus is not aware that the Simonians by no means acknowledge Jesus to be the son of God ; but they say that Simon is the power of God." The representation has become erroneous, from the change in the meaning of the word alpetTi^, haeresis, which anciently meant "sect ;" and was applied (e.g. by Epiphanius) to the religious sects of the Jews, and the phiiosopiiical sects of the heathens, as well as to the bodies which split off from the so-called Catholic Church. (Comp. Burton, Bampton Lectures, lect. iv.) Simon appears to have written some works, the titles of which are unknown. The author of the Constitutiones Apostolicae, lib. vi. c. 16, says that Simon and Cleobius, with their followers, forged and circulated books in the name of Christ and his disciples. Jerome {Comment, in Matt. xxiv. ad vs. 5) gives a brief citation, and Moses Bar Cepha, a Syriac writer of the tenth century, quotes several passages from Simon. The Praefatio Arabica ad Concilium Nicaenum {Concilia, vol. ii. col. 386, ed. Labbe) speaks of a spurious Gospel of the Simo- nians, or perhaps a corrupted copy of the Canonical Gospels, divided into four parts, and named after the four cardinal points of the compass. (Grabe, Spicilegium Patrum, vol. i. p. 305, &c. ; Fabric. Codex Apocryph. N. T. vol. i. pp. 140, 377, ed. Hamb. 1719.) 15. Op Nicaea. [No. 1.] 16. Petrus or Peter. [Petrus, No. 6.] 17. Ex Praedicatorum Ordine. [No. 22.] 18. De Rhetorica Arte Scriptor. Dio- genes Laertius (ii. 123) mentions Simon as a writer on Rhetoric {prjTopLKas rixt^'^s ^eypa.(pm), but gives no clue to his age or country. 19. Of Samaria. [No. 14.] 20. SoPHisTA. Aristophanes {Nubes, 350) has adverted to Simon as guilty of robbing the public treasury, but without mentioning of what city. According to Eupolis {Apud Scholiast, in Aris' tophan. I. c.) he robbed the treasury of the city of Heraclaea. The rapacity thus held up by two of the great comic dramatists of Athens passed into a proverb, 'Sl/J-wvos dpiraKTiKoiTepos. Suidas, who gives the proverb {s, v. 2i/xwj/) adds the inform- ation that Simou was a sophist, and the Scholiast on Aristophanes {Nubes, I. c.) adds that he was one of the persons then conspicuous in political affairs (TaJy eu TroAireia SianpenovTuv tJtc), Ave may presume at Athens. Aristophanes also brands Simon, apparently the same person, as guilty of perjury {Nubes, 398). (Allatius, De Simeonibus^ pp. 196, 197; Fabric. Bibl. Graec. vol. xi. p. 301.) 21. Tacumaeus. [No. 22.] 22. Of Thebes. Allatius {De Simeon, p. 202) speaks of Simon Constantinopolitanus, or Simon of Constantinople, an ecclesiastic of the order of i preachers, as having, in three treatises, strenuously maintained the doctrine of the Western Church of the procession of the Holy Spirit from the Son as well as from the Father, in opposition to the divines of the Greek church. The treatises were inscribed respectively, 1. To Manuel Holobelus, or Holobolus, a different person from Manuel Holobolus mentioned elsewhere. [Manuel, lite^ rary and ecclesiastical. No. 8.] 2. To Sophonias. 3. To Joannes Nomophylax. From the last of these treatises Allatius has given long extracts {Adv, Hottinger. p. 334 and 502 j De Odava S^/nodo Pho-