The Acts of the Three Martyrs of Edessa, under Diocletian; the variation and development of the text of these unusually restrained and plausible hagiographies, a vivid portrait of a Christian city caught between imperial support of paganism and the hesitation of the provincial governor. This study was found among the papers of Oscar von Gebhardt, and polished by the co-editor; it presents the two oldest Greek texts, and the Syriac version (in German translation) in parallel, followed by two younger Greek texts, the ancient Latin translation, and an acrostic poem, which bears the name Nikolaos.