The Passion of Perpetua and Felicity by Thomas J. Heffernan

(they were dragged into the midst of everyone to be killed, so that the eyes of the crowd might join with the sword piercing their bodies as accomplices to murder? ok slay.

The simple but evocative prose really hit the spot for me, and there are a few lines that will definitely be staying with me. I guess I was expecting something vaguely in the tone of Caesar's bellum gallicum, in the tone of most 2nd year latin reading courses, but Perpetua turned out to be a wild ride - always dramatic and deeply compelling, but also startlingly funny and shockingly violent, all in turns. As a text, she really upended my expectations. My first text read in the original Latin :') Perpetua will always have a special place in my heart. Perpetua's prison diary is a revered text of early Christianity, and Heffernan's new translation and commentary brings unprecedented scholarly resources to the much-loved Passion. He concludes the book with a complete codicological description of all of the known manuscripts and thorough scholarly indices of the text itself. It also includes a newly edited version of the Latin text based on all the extant manuscripts and - rarer still - the Greek text. Thomas Heffernan's new study contains much that has never been done before, including a prosopography of all the individuals mentioned in the Passion, a new English translation and the first detailed historical commentary in English on the entire narrative of the Passion.

This unique and precious text survives in one Greek and in nine Latin manuscript versions. A description of the heroic deaths of both women, and the autobiography of one of the leaders of the Christian community, Saturus, is woven into Perpetua's diary by an anonymous editor, who tells us that, as they died, Perpetua, Felicity, and the other condemned Christians bid farewell with a kiss of peace.

Perpetua's steadfastness in her belief led to her martyrdom in the amphitheater. Imprisoned with her was her pregnant slave Felicity. She was well-married and had recently become the mother of a baby son, but despite her advantages, she refused to recant her faith when she was arrested with other recent converts to Christianity. in Carthage, as part of a civic celebration honoring Caesar Geta. One of the most widely read and studied texts composed in Late Antiquity is the prison diary of Vibia Perpetua, a young woman of the elite classes who was martyred in March of the year 202 or 203 C.E. Winner of the Modern Language Association Prize for a Scholarly Edition

The Passion of Perpetua and Felicity by Thomas J. Heffernan