Is it quite true that Simon, called the _Magician_, was adored among the Romans? It is not more true that he was utterly unknown to them. St. Justin in his "Apology," which was as little known at Rome as Simon, tells us that this God had a statue erected on the Tiber, or rather near the Tiber, between the two bridges, with this inscription: _Simoni deo sancto._ St. Irenæus and Tertullian attest the same thing; but to whom do they attest it? To people who had never seen Rome--to Africans, to Allobroges, to Syrians, and to some of the inhabitants of Sichem. _They_ had certainly not seen this statue, the real inscription on which was _Semo sanco deo fidio_, and not _Simoni deo sancto_. They should at least have consulted Dionysius of Halicarnassus, who gives this inscription in his fourth book. _Semo sanco_ was an old Sabine word, signifying _half god and half man_; we find in Livy, _Bona Semoni sanco censuerunt consecranda_. This god was one of the most ancient in Roman worship, having been consecrated by Tarquin the Proud, and was considered as the god of alliances and good faith. It was the custom to sacrifice an ox to him, and to write any treaty made with a neighboring people upon the skin. He had a temple near that of Quirinus; offerings were sometimes presented to him under the name of _Semo the father_, and sometimes under that of _Sancus fidius_, whence Ovid says in his _"Fasti"_: _Quærebam nonas Sanco, Fidove referrem,_ _An tibi, Semo pater._ Such was the Roman divinity which for so many ages was taken for _Simon the Magician_. St. Cyril of Jerusalem had no doubts on the subject, and St. Augustine in his first book of "Heresies" tells us that Simon the Magician himself procured the erection of this statue, together with that of his _Helena_, by order of the emperor and senate. This strange fable, the falsehood of which might so easily have been discovered, was constantly connected with another fable, which relates that Simon and St. Peter both appeared before Nero and challenged each other which of them should soonest bring to life the corpse of a near relative of Nero's, and also raise himself highest in the air; that Simon caused himself to be carried up by devils in a fiery chariot; that St. Peter and St. Paul brought him down by their prayers; that he broke his legs and in consequence died, and that Nero, being enraged, put both St. Peter and St. Paul to death. Abdias, Marcellinus and Hegisippus have each related this story, with a little difference in the details. Arnobius, St. Cyril of Jerusalem, Sulpicius Severus, Philaster, St. Epiphanius, Isidorus of Damietta, Maximus of Turin, and several other authors successively gave currency to this error, and it was generally adopted, until at length there was found at Rome a statue of _Semo sancus deus fidius_, and the learned Father Mabillon dug up an ancient monument with the inscription _Semoni sanco deo fidio_.