Simon became a notoriety and repaired to Rome, where the emperor, attracted by all extraordinary spectacles, was disposed to welcome him: this emperor was Nero. The illuminated Jew astonished the crowned fool by a trick which is common in jugglery. He was decapitated, but afterwards saluted the emperor, his head being restored to his shoulders. He caused furniture to move and doors to open; in a word, he acted as a veritable medium and became sorcerer in ordinary at the orgies of Nero and the banquets of Trimalcyon. According to the legend makers, it was to rescue the Jews of Rome from the doctrine of Simon that St. Peter himself visited that capital of the world. Nero, by means of his inferior spies, was informed speedily that a new worker of Israelitish wonders had arrived to make war on his own enchanter, and he resolved to bring them together for his amusement. Petronius and Tigellinus were perhaps at this feast.[123] “May peace be with you,” said the prince of apostles on entering. “We have nothing to do with your peace,” answered Simon. “It is by war that truth is discovered. Peace between adversaries is the victory of one and the defeat of the other.” [Illustration: DISPUTATION BETWEEN SIMON THE MAGICIAN AND SS. PETER AND PAUL] St. Peter answered: “Why do you reject peace? The vices of men have created war, but peace ever abides with virtue.” “Virtue is power and skill,” said Simon. “For myself I face the fire, I rise in the air, I restore plants, I change stones into bread; and you, what do you do?” “I pray for you,” said St. Peter, “that you may not perish the victim of your enchantments.” “Keep your prayers; they will not ascend to heaven as quickly as myself.” And behold the magician passing out by a window and rising in the air outside. Whether this was accomplished by means of some aerostatic apparatus concealed under his long robes or whether he was lifted up, like the convulsionaries of Paris the Deacon, owing to an exaltation of the Astral Light, we are unable to say; but during this phenomenon St. Peter was praying on his knees, and Simon fell suddenly with a great cry, to be raised with his thighs broken. Nero imprisoned St. Peter, who seemed a far less diverting magician than Simon; the latter died of his fall. The whole of this history, which belongs to the popular rumours of the period, is now relegated, though perhaps wrongly, to the region of apocryphal legends.[124] On such account it is not less remarkable or less worthy to be preserved.