Atomus

{{Short description|Cypriot magician (1st century)}}

Atomus (Greek: Άτομος) was a Cypriot magician who appears in the Antiquities of the Jews by Josephus, working for Felix at Caesarea.{{cite book|author1=Josephus|author2=Louis H. Feldman|title=Josephus: Jewish Antiquities, Book XX General Index X|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=MqtZAAAAYAAJ|accessdate=20 September 2012|year=1996|publisher=Harvard University Press|isbn=978-0-674-99502-4}}{{cite book|author=Stephen Charles Haar|title=Simon Magus: The First Gnostic?|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qCs5PBDqRHUC&pg=PA62|accessdate=20 September 2012|year=2003|publisher=Walter de Gruyter|isbn=978-3-11-017689-6|pages=62–}}

Atomus was Jewish and is described as having been employed by Felix to convince Herod Agrippa II's sister Drusilla to divorce Azizus of Emesa and marry him instead.{{cite book|author=Arthur E. Palumbo, Jr.|title=The Dead Sea Scrolls and the Personages of Earliest Christianity|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lDiBWndLp90C&pg=PA252|accessdate=20 September 2012|date=1 May 2004|publisher=Algora Publishing|isbn=978-0-87586-296-5|pages=252–}}

The text reads "Simon" in some Latin manuscripts and Hans Waitz (1904) suggested that the magi may have been identifiable as Simon Magus.Waitz, Hans., “Simon Magus in der altchristlichen Literatur”, Zeitschrift für die neutestamentliche Wissenschaft und die Kunde des Urchristentums 5, pp. 121–143, 1904. This is not generally accepted as Atomus was a Jew and Simon Magus was a Samaritan.Arthur E. Palumbo - The Dead Sea Scrolls and the Personages of Earliest ... 2004 -0875862969 p.252 "H. Waitz suggested that this Atomus or Simon may have been Simon Magus as far back as 1904"