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Chapter VI.—Simon’s Departure.
Then I said: “If our lord Peter did not know that he himself alone can prevail against this power, he would not have sent us before him with orders to get information secretly concerning Simon, and to write to him.” Then, as evening had come on, we took supper, 1032 and went to sleep. But in the morning, one of Bernice’s friends came and said that Simon had set sail for Sidon, and that he had left behind him Appion Pleistonices, 1033 —a man of Alexandria, a p. 253 grammarian by profession, whom I knew as being a friend of my father; and a certain astrologer, Annubion the Diospolitan, and Athenodorus the Athenian, attached to the doctrine of Epicurus. And we, having learned these things concerning Simon, in the morning wrote and despatched a letter to Peter, and went to take a walk.
This epithet means, “the conqueror of very many.” Suidas makes Appion the son of Pleistonices. [Comp. Recognitions, x. 52. It is evident that the writer has in mind Apion, the opponent of the Jews, against whom Josephus wrote his treatise. Compare the statement of Homily V. 2. The entire discussion with Appion, extending over Homilies IV.–VI. is peculiar to this narrative, though much of the argument occurs in the discussion of Clement with his father (Recognitions, x.). Appion and Annubion are introduced in Recognitions, x. 52, but not as disputants. The discussion here is constructed with much skill.—R.]