Note 1851 — Chapter XVII · THE RECOGNITIONS OF CLEMENT AND SIMON MAGUS

Mead (1892), p. 37, notes that Dr. Salmon (article Simon Magus in Dict. Chris. Biog. IV, 686) “connects this with the story, told by Suetonius and Dio Chrysostom, that Nero caused a wooden theater to be erected in the Campus, and that a gymnast who tried to play the part of Icarus fell so near the emperor as to bespatter him with blood.” Hegesippus (De bello judaico, III, 2), Abdias (Hist. 1), and Maximus Taurinensis (Patr. VI, Synodi ad Imp. Const. Act. 18) compare Simon’s flight with that of Icarus.