The passion of Perpetua - Christian woman martyred in Carthage in A.D. 203

Not only in their exposure to bulls, but more generally in public punishment, we find that women were exposed in the nude, often with their hands tied behind their backs and with their bodies secured to vertical stakes.(19) Their public denuding was a calculated move further to strip them of dignity and power.(20) This specific degradation of nudity in the punishment of females is illustrated by the actions of a later Roman governor who sentenced a Christian woman, one Irene, to be sent, under the authority of the local market-inspectors of Thessaloniki, to a public whorehouse where she was to be exposed in the nude.(21) That Irene did not surrender to this immense shame, but rather held out to be burnt alive, was credited by the narrator of her martyrdom to the power of God. So Perpetua and Felicitas were further degraded by having all their clothing removed and being driven into the arena, into the public sight of all, intentionally clad only in diaphanous nets.(22) Their particular degradation, including, as it did, a public affront to manifest motherhood, was too much for the crowd. When the "covers of modesty" had been removed from the women, the spectators were horrified to see that "one was a delicate young girl and the other was a woman fresh from childbirth, with milk still dripping from her breasts" (20.1-2).(23) The sexual dimensions of punishment, and the female resolve to resist such manipulation of their bodies, had a long "pre-christian" history. That much is reflected, for example, in the "popular literature" of the period, like novels, to which a literate woman like Perpetua would have had access. In these one could read of episodes such as the one retold in the novel Leukippe and Kleitophon. In it, the attempted rape of a "slave woman" named Leukippe (in fact a woman of free birth) by her "master" Thersandros, and his threats to use torture to enforce his will on her, is resisted by her with the following words:

Bring on the instruments of torture: the wheel -- here, take my arms and

stretch them; the whips -- here is my back, lash away; the hot irons -- here

is my body for burning; bring the axe as well -- here is my neck,

slice through! Watch a new contest: a single woman competes with all the

engines of torture and wins every round.(24) Female opposition was nothing new -- nor therefore the possibilities of Perpetua's resistance.

In answer to the crowd's affronted sensibilities, Perpetua and Felicitas were removed from the arena and clothed in plain loose garments. They were then returned to the arena to be hit and trampled by the wild animal. Though concussed and knocked senseless by the initial assault of the beast, Perpetua survived and was taken back, for a brief respite, through the Gate of Life. In the meantime, Saturus, who had survived earlier attempts to kill him, was thrown back into the arena and suffered a savage mauling by a leopard. So much blood gushed out of his body that the great crowd in the amphitheatre reacted to the attack with rhythmic chanting: Salvum lotum! Salvum lotum! ("Had a great bath! Had a great bath!").(25) Saturus, still not dead after all this, had his unconscious body tossed "in the usual place" to have his throat cut. But the crowd greatly wished to see his death, as well as those of his fellow prisoners. So Saturus was revived and forced to mount the steps of a platform in the arena where his throat was cut by a sword-wielding executioner. Perpetua, reserved as the finale, likewise was forced to climb the steps of the stage. Prepared for execution, she received the errant blow of a nervous and rattled young gladiator on her collar bone. She screamed in agony. Regaining her composure, she guided the shaking hand of the trainee gladiator to her throat.