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ROMAN TRADITIONS OF PETER AND PAUL. 229
with corn-measure glistening with gems, upon his head,
and sceptre in hand ; Helene, as Isis, with the veil of
byssos, diadem shaped like a half-moon, and in her locks
a lotus-flower. In their driver, people knew the emperor
himself. The car was girt by wreathed singers and boys
bearing censers. Before and behind it, rode prsetorian
guards, in armor of gold. Along the entire way the
procession moved, people sank upon their knees and
cried :
" Hail, god from Samaria, CjEsar’s friend ! Hail,
wisdom divine, Helene !
" From the boats on the Tiber,
rang song and music of strings, and into the water baskets
of lotus-flowers were flung, which, as they rocked on the
waves, might cause a spectator to believe the sacred
streams of Memphis and of Rome had united in one.
In the crowd, was one or another philosopher, repub-
lican or Christian, who would not fall in the dust before
the magician, and the ruler of the world, his driver. Such
hurried away. But Paul stood upright, and his eye sought
and met Simon’s.
He had guessed aright. It was the very impostor
who had wished to purchase from the apostles the power
of the Holy Ghost—in the belief that all things, even the
holiest, could be bought with money. Yes, it was un-
doubtedly Simon Magus, the magician from Gitton in
Samaria, disciple of the Egyptian priests, the worst foe
of Christendom ; it was he, whose shameful offer Luke
had that very day described in his advancing work, the
Acts of the Apostles. And Paul knew now, he should
have a hard struggle to go through, with that man.
In Rome, Simon exercised a boundless influence.
He had come thither to establish a new religion. Peo-
ple, little content with the old which they had inherited,
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