Vibia Perpetua’s Diary: A Woman’s Writing in a Roman Text of its Own
Melissa C. Perez
University of Central Florida: Master’s Thesis, Department of History (2009)
Abstract
Writing the history of women in antiquity is hindered by the lack of written sources by them. It has been the norm to assume that the only sources that can tell us something about them are the sources written by men. This thesis challenges this convention as it concerns the social history of Rome through the exploration of a written source by a woman named Vibia Perpetua. She was a Roman woman of twenty-two years from Roman Carthage, who was martyred on March 7, 203 C.E. The reason that we know of this Roman woman and what happened to her is because of the diary she wrote. The diary survived because it was preserved in the martyrology Passio Sanctarum Martyrum Perpetuae et Felicitatis. The Passio which was edited by an unknown redactor, documents the martyrdom of several people. Unlike any other martyrologies the editor of the story included the actual diary as it was written by Vibia Perpetua. Although we have a Roman woman’s writing from the second/early third century C.E, her diary reached us through a filter that has influenced up to this day the way that the text is interpreted and preserved. The intention of this thesis is threefold; to analyze the diary of Vibia Perpetua with a new focus on the discourse of Roman women by first exploring the history of the Passio Sanctarum Martyrum Perpetuaet Felicitatis. Then, a method is formulated that makes use of contemporary studies on women’s diaries and self-representation in texts in order to incorporate Perpetua’s writing within the social history of Rome and the history of women more broadly. The study concludes by demonstrating how this diary can help to open a new dialog about the life of both women and men in antiquity and further question the history we have inherited from them.
Introduction: Women’s history has advanced in the past forty years or so, given the wide spectrum of scholarly studies available in the subject. Scholars have broadened the understanding of women’s lives through the exploration of different sources, from literary to cultural material. In the study of more recent centuries these are more easily available, since we have more access to women’s literary works, and personal writings such as diaries and letters. However, when investigating the more distant past of women, little if anything is said to have survived from their direct hands. This of course has its consequence, as Sarah B. Pomeroy observes, “it is most significant to note the consistency with which some attitudes toward women and the roles women play in Western Society have endured through the centuries.”
Pomeroy’s bookGoddesses, Whores, Wives, and Slaves: Women in Classical Antiquity had a wide impact on the study of women in Classical Studies and Ancient History. For the first time, a scholar explored the life of women in antiquity through a feminist perspective that questioned the way that women’s lives were understood and explored at the time. Pomeroy questioned what seemed to be obvious: “what women were doing while men were active in all the areas traditionally emphasized by classical scholars.” But what seems more troubling when investigating the lives of women from antiquity is that all the sources that have survived come from men. As noted by scholars, for example, the evidence that we have about Roman women is, if anything, biased. As such, scholars of Roman history, especially social historians, and scholars of women’s history are always left to wonder, as M.I. Finley put it best: “what the women would have said had they been allowed to speak for themselves.”
This is one of the focuses of this thesis: to explore what would the women of the Roman world would have said if giving the chance to be heard, because of a surviving source. This thesis focuses on such discourse by exploring the diary of the Christian martyr Vibia Perpetua. By an exploration of the diary of Vibia Perpetua historians, at least, are able to hear what a woman had to say about herself and her Roman society.
Melissa C. Perez
University of Central Florida: Master’s Thesis, Department of History (2009)
Abstract
Writing the history of women in antiquity is hindered by the lack of written sources by them. It has been the norm to assume that the only sources that can tell us something about them are the sources written by men. This thesis challenges this convention as it concerns the social history of Rome through the exploration of a written source by a woman named Vibia Perpetua. She was a Roman woman of twenty-two years from Roman Carthage, who was martyred on March 7, 203 C.E. The reason that we know of this Roman woman and what happened to her is because of the diary she wrote. The diary survived because it was preserved in the martyrology Passio Sanctarum Martyrum Perpetuae et Felicitatis. The Passio which was edited by an unknown redactor, documents the martyrdom of several people. Unlike any other martyrologies the editor of the story included the actual diary as it was written by Vibia Perpetua. Although we have a Roman woman’s writing from the second/early third century C.E, her diary reached us through a filter that has influenced up to this day the way that the text is interpreted and preserved. The intention of this thesis is threefold; to analyze the diary of Vibia Perpetua with a new focus on the discourse of Roman women by first exploring the history of the Passio Sanctarum Martyrum Perpetua et Felicitatis. Then, a method is formulated that makes use of contemporary studies on women’s diaries and self-representation in texts in order to incorporate Perpetua’s writing within the social history of Rome and the history of women more broadly. The study concludes by demonstrating how this diary can help to open a new dialog about the life of both women and men in antiquity and further question the history we have inherited from them.
Introduction: Women’s history has advanced in the past forty years or so, given the wide spectrum of scholarly studies available in the subject. Scholars have broadened the understanding of women’s lives through the exploration of different sources, from literary to cultural material. In the study of more recent centuries these are more easily available, since we have more access to women’s literary works, and personal writings such as diaries and letters. However, when investigating the more distant past of women, little if anything is said to have survived from their direct hands. This of course has its consequence, as Sarah B. Pomeroy observes, “it is most significant to note the consistency with which some attitudes toward women and the roles women play in Western Society have endured through the centuries.”
Pomeroy’s book Goddesses, Whores, Wives, and Slaves: Women in Classical Antiquity
had a wide impact on the study of women in Classical Studies and Ancient History. For the first time, a scholar explored the life of women in antiquity through a feminist perspective that questioned the way that women’s lives were understood and explored at the time. Pomeroy questioned what seemed to be obvious: “what women were doing while men were active in all the areas traditionally emphasized by classical scholars.” But what seems more troubling when investigating the lives of women from antiquity is that all the sources that have survived come from men. As noted by scholars, for example, the evidence that we have about Roman women is, if anything, biased. As such, scholars of Roman history, especially social historians, and scholars of women’s history are always left to wonder, as M.I. Finley put it best: “what the women would have said had they been allowed to speak for themselves.”
This is one of the focuses of this thesis: to explore what would the women of the Roman world would have said if giving the chance to be heard, because of a surviving source. This thesis focuses on such discourse by exploring the diary of the Christian martyr Vibia Perpetua. By an exploration of the diary of Vibia Perpetua historians, at least, are able to hear what a woman had to say about herself and her Roman society.
Click here to read this thesis from the University of Central Florida
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