Perpetua : the woman, the martyr / Sarah Ruden.

Author/creator Ruden, Sarah author.
Format Book
PublicationNew Haven : Yale University Press, [2025]
Copyright Date©2025
Descriptionxiv, 191 pages : map ; 23 cm.
Subjects

SeriesAncient lives
Ancient lives (Yale University Press) ^A1464232
Contents Born, educated, married -- Converging forces -- Her own hand, her own impressions -- I knew I spoke with the master -- Fattened for a sacrifice to Caesar -- A picture with the face torn out -- The suffering of the Holy Perpetua and Felicitas -- Source notes.
Abstract "On March 7, 203, in the monumental amphitheater at Carthage, Vibia Perpetua was one of five Christians who met their deaths after refusing to venerate the Roman emperor Septimius Severus and his son. Perpetua stood out from the other four, and in fact from all the other martyrs of her era and before: she was an aristocratic married woman with an infant son, and she is the first female prose author whose work survives. Offering a probing new translation of Perpetua's extraordinary prison diary and situating the life behind that diary within the turbulent late Roman Empire, Sarah Ruden tells the story of Perpetua's remarkable feat of self-invention as a martyr. As she builds on Perpetua's own words and integrates them into their religious and historical contexts, Ruden shines a light on Perpetua's disarming candidness, her brashness, and her naïvété. In contrast to traditional portrayals of the saint as a brave but submissive young woman, Ruden's narrative reveals a complex individual who flaunts a vivid public persona as a martyr while at the same time navigating the emotions of a mother, daughter, sister, and friend approaching death."-- Provided by publisher.
General note"Source notes" : pages 171-173.
Bibliography noteIncludes bibliographical references and index.
Genre/formBiographies.
Genre/formBiographies.
ISBN9780300273717
ISBN0300273711 (hardcover)

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