11-15-2005, 01:34 AM
Hi, I'm pretty new here. I'm actually thinking about writing a comic based on the story of St George and the Dragon; St George was a soldier in the late Roman Army so I thought you guys might be able to help with some of the details, it's a pretty interesting topic. This is the wikipedia article describing the traditional story of Georgius 
The story with the dragon is set in the city of Cyrene in Libya (province of Cyrenaica). My idea is that, while stationed in Egypt he has a crisis of faith, and goes to live as a hermit for a while in the desert.
The sort of information I need:
1) the army and soldiers in the late 3rd century AD, what they looked like, how they lived, trained and fought, and what it would be like to be a Christian Soldier.
2) the campaigns George might have been in, whether he culd have been posted to Egypt, and whether he could go on leave to become a hermit (!)
(and in non-military stuff, doesn't really fit on this site, I know, but you might be able to point me in the right directions)
3) what Christianity was like at that time, how they thought, how they were organised, how they pictured Jesus and the angels. And the sort of tensions there would have been with pagans, and between the different Christian sects (I remember reading somewhere of violent clashes between them).
4)What Cyrene would have been like, and which gods (and in which capacities) they worshipped.
5) maybe any other information you think would be relevant... information about Cappadocia and Palestine where George would have grown up. Some other random things I was wondering were the sorts of punishments a man would receive in Roman Egypt for attempted rape, and if a soldier could get away with killing him, and the age of marriage in Cyrene. Pretty random, I know!
Quote:The traditional account of his life is considered to have originated in the 4th century, although few hard facts are known. It is said that George was born in a fuller's shop in Epiphania, in Cilicia, to a Christian family during the late 3rd century [1]. His father was from Cappadocia and served as an officer of the army. His mother was from Lydda, Palestine. She returned to her native city as a widow along with her young son, where she provided her son with a respectable education.
The youth apparently followed his father's example in joining the army soon after his coming of age. Apparently, he proved to be a charismatic soldier and consequently rose quickly through the military ranks of the time. By his late twenties he had gained the titles of tribunus (tribune) and later comes (count), period which George had been positioned in Nicomedia as a member of the personal guard attached to Roman Emperor Diocletian (reign 284–305).
In 303, Diocletian issued an edict authorising the systematic persecution of Christians across the Empire. His caesar Galerius was supposedly responsible for this decision and would continue the persecution during his own reign (305–311). It´s believed that George was ordered to take part in the persecution but instead confessed to being a Christian himself and criticised the imperial decision. An enraged Diocletian proceeded in ordering the torture of this apparent traitor and his execution. According to the tradition, after various other tortures, George was executed by decapitation in front of Nicomedia's defensive wall on April 23, 303. The witness of his suffering convinced Empress Alexandra and an unnamed pagan priest to also become Christians, and so they also joined George in martyrdom as consequence. His body was then returned to Lydda for burial, where Christians soon came to honour George as a martyr.
The story with the dragon is set in the city of Cyrene in Libya (province of Cyrenaica). My idea is that, while stationed in Egypt he has a crisis of faith, and goes to live as a hermit for a while in the desert.
The sort of information I need:
1) the army and soldiers in the late 3rd century AD, what they looked like, how they lived, trained and fought, and what it would be like to be a Christian Soldier.
2) the campaigns George might have been in, whether he culd have been posted to Egypt, and whether he could go on leave to become a hermit (!)
(and in non-military stuff, doesn't really fit on this site, I know, but you might be able to point me in the right directions)
3) what Christianity was like at that time, how they thought, how they were organised, how they pictured Jesus and the angels. And the sort of tensions there would have been with pagans, and between the different Christian sects (I remember reading somewhere of violent clashes between them).
4)What Cyrene would have been like, and which gods (and in which capacities) they worshipped.
5) maybe any other information you think would be relevant... information about Cappadocia and Palestine where George would have grown up. Some other random things I was wondering were the sorts of punishments a man would receive in Roman Egypt for attempted rape, and if a soldier could get away with killing him, and the age of marriage in Cyrene. Pretty random, I know!
