The First Apology

But the evil spirits were not satisfied with claiming, before Christ’s appearance, that those who were said to be sons of Jupiter were born from him. After He appeared and was born among humans, and when they learned how He had been foretold by the prophets, realizing He would be believed in and anticipated by every nation, they again, as mentioned before, brought forward other men. These men were the Samaritans, Simon and Menander, who performed many mighty works through magic and deceived many people, continuing to keep them deceived. For even among your own people, as we said earlier, Simon was in the royal city of Rome during the reign of Claudius Caesar and astonished the sacred senate and people of the Romans so greatly that he was considered a god and honored, like the others whom you honor as gods, with a statue. Therefore, we pray that the sacred senate and your people, along with yourselves, may be judges of this our account. This is so if anyone is ensnared by that man’s doctrines, he may learn the truth and be able to escape error. As for the statue, if you wish, destroy it.