615 



SIMON MACCABEUS. 



8IMONIDES. 



C16 



SIMON MACCABEUS, or MATTHES, suroamed THASI, was 

 the second son of Mattathias, and brother of Judas Maccabaeus and 

 Jonathan Apphus. Mattathias, when dying, recommended him to his 

 brethren as their counsellor (1 Mace., ii. 3). He distinguished himself 

 on several occasions during the lives of Judas and Jonathan. (1 Mace., 

 v. 17- x. 74; 2 Mace., viii. 22; xiv. 17). Under the latter he was 

 made, by Antiochus Theos, governor over the coast of the Mediter- 

 ranean from Tyre to the frontier of Egypt (1 Mace., xl 59) ; and here 

 he took the fortified towns of Bethsur and Joppa, and founded Adida, 

 in the plain of Sephela. (1 Mace., xi. 65 ; xii. 3.3, 38.) 



After the treacherous seizure of Jonathan by Trypho [JONATHAN 

 APPHUS], Simon was chosen by the people as their chief (1 Mace., xiii.) ; 

 and, according to Josephus (' Antiq.,' xiii. 6, 6), as high-priest also. 

 After putting Jerusalem in a state of defence, he marched out to meet 

 Trypho, who did not venture to give him battle, and who was soon 

 after compelled to retreat into winter-quarters in Gilead, where he 

 murdered Jonathan and his two sons. Simon recovered his brother's 

 corpse, and interred it in his father's sepulchre at Modin, and built 

 over it a magnificent mausoleum, which was standing in the time of 

 Eusebius. About this time (B.C. 143) Trypho had murdered Antiochus, 

 and proclaimed himself king. Sitaon immediately declared for his 

 competitor, Demetrius Nicator, with whom he made a very favourable 

 treaty, whereby Simon was recognised prince and high-priest of the 

 Jews, all claims upon whom for tribute Demetrius relinquished, and 

 consented to bury in oblivion their offences against him. Thus the 

 Jews became once more free and independent, and they began to 

 reckon from this period (170 Aer. Seleuc. ; B.C. 143-142) a new civil 

 era, which is used on the coins of Simon as well as by Josephus and 

 the author of the First Book of Maccabees (1 Mace., xiii. 41.). The 

 last remains of their bondage to the Syrians were removed in the 

 next year by the surrender of the Syrian garrison, in the citadel of 

 Jerusalem. 



The succeeding period of peace was employed by Simon in extending 

 and consolidating his power, and improving the condition of his people. 

 He made a harbour at Joppa, established magazines and armouries, 

 improved the laws and administered them with vigour, restored the 

 religious rites, and renewed the treaties of alliance which Jonathan had 

 made with the Romans and Spartans. (1 Mace., xiv., xv.) In the 

 year -B.C. 141, the people met at Jerusalem, and registered a public act 

 recounting the services of the house of Mattathias, and recognising 

 Simon and his heirs as perpetual prince and high-priest of the Jews : 

 and this act was afterwards confirmed by Demetrius. (1 Mace., xiv. 

 35.) After the capture of Demetrius by the Parthians, his successor 

 Antiochua Sidetes renewed the treaty with Simon, allowed him to 

 coin money, and declared Jerusalem a free and holy city. Soon after- 

 wards however Antiochus not only refused to ratify this treaty, but 

 demanded of Simon the surrender of several fortified places, including 

 the citadel on Mount Zion, or the payment of 1000 talents. Simon 

 refused these demands, and Antiochus sent a large army into Palestine, 

 which was soon however driven back by John Hyrcanus and Judas, 

 the sous of Simon (B.C. 139-138). For the next three years the Jews 

 again enjoyed a season of tranquillity, during which Simon occupied 

 himself in inspecting and improving the state of the country. In the 

 course of his tour he visited his son-in-law Ptolemaeus, at the castle of 

 Doc, where he and his two sons Mattathias and Judas were treacher- 

 ously put to death by Ptolemseus, who aimed at the principality of 

 Judaea (B.C. 135). He was succeeded by his surviving son John 

 Hyrcanus. [HYRCANUS, JOHN ; ASMON^ANS ; MACCABEES.] 



The coinage of Simon is the first of which we have any historical 

 account among the Jews. 



(JosephuB, Antiq. ; Prideaux, Connection ; Jahn, Hebrew Common- 

 wealth ; Winer, Biblisches Realworterbuch.) 



SIMON MAGUS, that is, the 'magician,' is mentioned in the Acts of 

 the Apostles as having imposed upon the people of Samaria by magical 

 practices. When Philip the Deacon preached the gospel at Samaria, 

 bimon was among those who received baptism at his hands. But 

 when Peter and John came down to Samaria, and Simon perceived 

 that the Holy Ghost was received by those upon whom they laid their 

 hands, he offered them money if they would give him the same 

 power. Peter vehemently rebuked him, and he showed some appear- 

 ance of penitence (Acts viii. 9-24) ; but the early Christian writers 

 represent him as afterwards becoming one of the chief opponents of 

 Christianity. According to them he was the founder of the Gnostic 

 heresy, and was addicted to magical practices and to abominable 

 vices. After travelling through several provinces, endeavouring as he 

 went to spread his errors and to damage Christianity as much as 

 possible, he came to Rome, where it is said that he worked miracles 

 which gained him many followers, and obtained for him the favour of 

 Nero. At last, as he was exhibiting in the emperor's presence the 

 feat of flying through the air in a fiery chariot, which he was enabled 

 to perform by the aid of daemons, the united prayers of Peter and 

 Paul, who were present on the occasion, prevailed against him, and 

 the daemons threw him to the ground. There are also other marvel- 

 lous stories about his life and doctrines. (Calmet, Dictionary ; Winer, 

 Biblisches Realworterbuch ; Lardner, Credibility.) 

 SIMON MATTHES. [SIMON MACCABEUS.] 

 SIMON, RICHARD, was born at Dieppe, in Normandy, May 13, 

 1638. After he had finished his studies, he entered into the Congre- 



gation of the Oratory, and became lecturer on philosophy at the 

 Jollege of Juilly. Being summoned by his superiors to Paris, he 

 applied himself to the study of divinity, and made great progress in. 

 oriental learning. There being a valuable collection of oriental 

 manuscripts in the Oratory of Rue St. Honore", Simon was directed to 

 make a catalogue of them, which he did with great skill. In 1668 he 

 returned to Juilly, and resumed his lectures on philosophy, and two 

 years after published his defence of a Jew whom the parliament of 

 Vtetz condemned to be burned on the charge of having murdered a 

 Christian child : ' Factum pour le Juif de Metz,' &c., Paris, 1670. In 

 ;he following year, with a view to show that the opinions of the Greek 

 Church are not materially different from those of the Church of Rome 

 with respect to the Sacrament, he published his 'Fides Ecclesise 

 Orientalis,' 8vo, Paris, 1671, and 4to, 1682. This work, which is a 

 translation of one of the tracts of Gabriel, metropolitan of Philadel- 

 phia, with notes, Simon gave as a supplement to the first volume of 

 ihe ' Perpetuity of the Faith respecting the Eucharist,' whose authors 

 lie accused of having committed many gross errors, and not having 

 sufficiently answered the objections raised by the Protestant minister 

 Jean Claude, in his ' Reponse au Traitd de la Perpe'tuite' de la Foi sur 

 L'Eucharistie.' [CLAUDE, JEAN.] This involved "him in a contro- 

 versy with the writers of Port-Royal, and laid the foundation of that 

 opposition which he afterwards met with from the learned of his own 

 communion. His next publication, which came out under the assumed 

 name of Recared Simeon, was a French translation of the work of Leo 

 of Modena : ' Ce're'monies et Coutumes qui s'observent aujourd'hui 

 parmi les Juifs,' 12mo, Paris, 1674. A second edition appeared in 

 1681, under the name of the Sieur de Simonville, containing also a 

 supplement respecting the Caraites and the Samaritans, and a com- 

 parison between the ceremonies of the Jews and the discipline of the 

 Church. In 1675 he published the ' Voyage de Mont Liban,' from the 

 Italian of Dandini, with notes, and about the same time his ' Factum 

 du Prince de Neubourg, abbe de Feschamps, contre les Religieux de 

 cette Abbaye,' in which work, as was usual with him, he took an 

 opportunity to attack the Benedictines. But the work which ren- 

 dered him most famous is his ' Histoire Critique du Vieux Testament,' 

 which immediately after its publication (8vo, Paris, 1678) was sup- 

 pressed on the ground that it contained doctrines dangerous to reli- 

 gion and to the Church. The work, however, was so much admired 

 for its learning and criticism, that it was reprinted the year after, and 

 translated into Latin at Amsterdam, 1681, and into English at Lon- 

 don, 4to, 1682, by John Hampden. After the publication of his 

 ' Histoire Critique,' Simon left the Congregation of the Oratory, and 

 repaired to Belleville, a village near Caux, where he held a curacy ; 

 but in 1682 he resigned his office and removed to Dieppe, and thence 

 to Paris to renew his studies and make arrangements for the publica- 

 tion of other works. In 1684 he published at Frankfurt ' Histoire de 

 1'Origine et du Progres des Revenues Eccl^siastiques,' under the name 

 of Jerome b, Costa, of which a second edition appeared at the same 

 place in 2 vols. 8vo, 1709. In the same year (1684) he printed in 

 London his ' Disquisitiones Criticae de variis per diversa Loca et 

 Tempora Bibliorum Editionibus,' which was immediately translated 

 into English. In 1688 he published at Frankfurt, under the name of 

 John Reuchlin, ' Dissertation Critique sur la Nouvelle Bibliotheque 

 des Auteurs Eccle'siastiques par Du Pin,' in which he defends some 

 opinions contained in his ' Histoire Critique,' which had been contro- 

 verted by Du Pin. His next publication was ' Histoire Critique du 

 Nouveau Testament,' 4to, Rotterdam, 1689, an English version of 

 which appeared the same year at London. Besides the above, Simon 

 was the author or editor of many other works. He was unques- 

 tionably a man of profound learning and great acuteness, and he 

 contributed in no small degree to lessen the authority of his own 

 church ; but a love of controversy, in all its bitteruess, and too great 

 a propensity to depreciate and abuse those who happened not to 

 acquiesce in his opinions, rendered him equally obnoxious to Pro- 

 testants and Roman Catholics. He died at Dieppe, in April, 1712, in 

 the seventy-fourth year of his age. 



SIMO'NIDES was a native of lulls, in the island of Ceos, and was 

 born about B.C. 556. His father's name was Leoprepes, aud his grand- 

 father's Simonides, who was also a poet. 



Simonides is said to have obtained great fame as a poet at an early 

 age. He appears to have remained in Ceos till about B.C. 525, when 

 he removed to Athens, where he was honourably received by Hippar- 

 chus, and became acquainted with Anacreon and Lasus (Plato, ' Hip- 

 parch.,' p. 228 ; ./Elian, ' Var. Hist.,' viii. 2). After the murder of 

 Hipparchus, he took refuge with the Aleuadae and Scopadae in Thea- 

 saly, whose praises he celebrated in some of his poems (Theocrit., xvi. 

 34, &c., with the Schol. ; compare Plato, ' Protagor.,' p. 333). How 

 long Simouides remained in Thessaly is not known ; but after the 

 battle of Marathon (B.C. 490) we find him again at Athens. For the 

 next ten years he appears to have lived chiefly at Athens, and to have 

 been actively engaged in the pursuit of his art. After the banishment of 

 Thcmistocles and the death of Pausanias, with both of whom he lived 

 on intimate terms, he retired to Hierou's court at Syracuse (yElian, 

 * Var. Hist.,' ix. 1 ; iv. 15), where he died, B.C. 467, in his ninetieth year. 



Most of the poems of Simonides are lost ; but enough have come 

 down to us to enable us to form some opinion of the merits of his 

 poetry, and to justify the panegyrics which the ancient writers bestow 



