25. And, secondly, we who from every nation formerly Chris.
Vices of Heathen gods.
Men deified.
IJ) same animals are considered by some to be gods; by others, Apol. to be wild beasts; and by others still, to be sacrificial i^^^i?^* victims, as you well know.
25. And, secondly, we who from every nation formerly Chris. worshipped Bacchus, the son of Semele ; and Apollo, thef'^"^ /. X
. behtve son oi L/atona ; whose practices with men it is shameful nothing even to mention ; and Proserpine, and Venus, who were ""^of maddened for love of Adonis, and whose mysteries also you^^^'celebrate
; or ^sculapius, or any other of those who are called gods ; do now, although threatened with death for it, hold them, through Jesus Christ, in utter contempt; and dedicate ourselves to God, the Unbegotten, and Impassible; who we are persuaded was never urged by lust to descend on Antiope, and other women likewise; nor on Ganymede, nor was released by assistance obtained through Thetis of that hundred-handed giant; nor was anxious, in return, that Achilles her son should, because of his concubine Briseis, bring death on so many of the G reeks
; and we feel pity for those who believe these things, but their authors we know to be devils.
26.
Thirdly ; after the ascension of Christ into Heaven, Here^ the devils put forward certain men who styled themselves f^^^^^^j" gods, who not only were not persecuted by you, but were even deemed worthy of honours.
There was Simon of Samaria, a native of a village called Gitto, who in the time of Claudius Caesar, through the craft of the devils working by his means, performed acts of magic, and was held in your royal city of Rome to be a god, and was honoured by you with a statue like a god, which was raised on the river Tiber, between the two bridges, bearing this inscription in the Roman language, '* To Simon the holy god%" whom Orat. iii, p. 83. (ed. Fen. Or. iv.
§. 81.
Csesar, because of his sTcill in magic." p. 117.) where the word seems to be Adv. Hseres. i. 20.
Tertullian speaks used so as to include statues. more decidedly, " Simon was inauq " Simon the ho'v god."
There gurated with the statue and inscriphave been great diversities of opinion tion ' of the holy god.'"'
Apol. §. xiii. as to St.
Justin's correctness in this Eusebius, ii. 13. and Cyril of Jerusalem, assertion.
Besides himself, this statue Cat. Lect. vi. 9. follow the account ot is mentioned among early writers by St.
Justin.
Theodoret tells us, that St.
Irenseus, Tertullian, Eusebius, Simon's was made of brass, Her. Fab.
Theodoret, and St.
Augustin.
St. i.
And St. Augilstm, de Hfcrea. i.
Irenreus merely says, that " Simon is says, that Simon erected his own reported to have been honoured with image, and that of Helena at Rome, a statue in the reign of Claudius by public authority, as if they were C 2