PREFACE. XXXI
tion of the first edict against the Christians, is intended. Thus there is some evidence that the original writer of the martyrdom of St. George was well acquainted with the facts of the persecution of the Christians by Galerius, but that either wilfully or ignorantly the names of those who took part in it were corrupted or changed, and the Historical sequence of events destroyed.
I am unable to say when the Coptic version of the martyrdom of George was made, but it must have been known and read as early as the time of Theodorus, Bishop of Ancyra, in the early part of the Vth century. The fragments D and E of the Sahidic version show that the work was known all over Egypt in the IXth century; and as we find in E a marginal note, ⲙⲡⲉϩ ⲇ︦ ⲛ̀ⲱϣ, “the fourth time of reading”, indicating the passage which was to be peat at the fourth reading of the martyrdom, we are certain that it was read publicly in the churches of Upper Egypt at that period.
The Coptic text shows us clearly that the dragon which George fought and overcame was none other than the impious Dadiamus, and it proves, if further proof is needed, that George the martyr and George the opponent of Athanasius, Bishop of Alexandria, were two distinct per- sons; the facet being that Athanasius the Bishop has been confused with Athanasius the sorcerer whom George the martyr overcame. And the princess whom popular tradition says Saint George rescued from the dragon,
1 Tillemont, Mémoires, v, 9.
