The Simonians
Now we have established who and what Simon Magus was and did, was the sect he founded popular? At least as popular as other christian sects and cults and rivalled the Eastern Churches and the Roman Church put together. Simon founded a gnostic sect; its members regarded Simon as the living incarnation of the Supreme God (shades of Marcion here) and that Simons wife/girlfriend/partner ( hey every magician has a beautiful woman around to distract don’t they?) was Ennoia, aka “The first thought of the Creator God”
The followers believed in and practiced magic (tricks) and worshipped Simon as a deity. The Simonians were widely popular in Syria, Asia Minor and of course, in Rome where they nearly outnumbered (With the Marcionites and others) the nascent Roman Church who opposed them and, naturally, accused them of all sorts of horrible practices.
Although wildly popular while the Magus was alive, their numbers and influence waned. They were attacked by the usual lot of Roman lap dog writers including Justin Martyr, Iraneus, Epihanius et al.
By the middle of the 4th century CE they were almost extinct as a sect or cult, however their faith lived on as other cults and sects such as the Menadrians, Basilidians and Carpocratians adopted, if not their central creed many of the Simonians rituals and ideas.
It can be seen that rather than the lie propagated by modern evangelists and others with vested interests the 1st to 4th centuries were a hotbed of chaotic, competing sects, cults and mainstream religion, all terming themselves as some type of “Christian” or Messianic faith. Some of which were at least as popular as the established Roman faith, and some like Marcion and Simonians, temporarily overtaking them in popularity.
Even the Roman Church was beset by all the schisms within its self and wasn’t forcefully united (By pogroms and massacres) until the 5th century.