The Acts of Peter is one of the earliest of the apocryphal Acts of the Apostles. The majority of the text has survived only in the Latin translation of the Vercelli manuscript, under the title Actus Petri cum Simone. It is mainly notable for a description of a miracle contest between Saint Peter and Simon Magus, and as the first record of the tradition that St. Peter was crucified head-down. The Acts of Peter was originally composed in Greek during the second half of the 2nd century, probably in Asia Minor. Consensus among academics points to its being based on the Acts of John, and traditionally both works were said to be written by Leucius Charinus, whom Epiphanius identifies as the companion of John. In the text, Peter performs many miracles, see Acts 5verse 12. He healed a crippled beggar. Acts 3. Peter preaches that Simon is performing magic in order to convert followers through deception. In his outrage, Peter challenges Simon to a contest in order to prove whose works are from a divine source and whose are merely trickery. It is said that Simon Magus takes flight and Peter strikes him down with the power of God and prays that Simon be not killed but that he be badly injured. The Acts then continue to say that he was taken to Terracina to one Castor "And there he was sorely cut, and so Simon the angel of Satan came to his end.". Following this incident, Peter is going to flee the city; however, he sees an apparition of Jesus and takes it as a message that he must stay and be crucified to see Jesus again in Heaven. Peter requests to be crucified upside-down because he does not believe that a man is worthy to be killed in the same manner as Jesus Christ. These concluding chapters describing Peter's crucifixion are preserved separately as the "Martyrdom of Peter" in three Greek manuscripts and in Coptic, Syriac, Ethiopic, Arabic, Armenian, and Slavonic versions. Because of this, it is sometimes proposed that the martyrdom account was an earlier, separate text to which the preceding chapters were affixed.
