From “Passio Perpetuae” to “Acta Perpetuae”: Recontextualizing a Martyr Story in the Literature of the Early Church Arbeiten zur Kirchengeschichte by Petr Kitzler (review)

Professor Kitzler has given us a very able vade mecum for the study of the history and reception of the Carthaginian martyrs Perpetua and their companions. There has been a massive amount of scholarship on the Passio Perpetuae (hereafter PP), somewhat less on the Acta, in the past twenty years. Kitzler’s small volume is an excellent guide to the text and its growing bibliography. His judgments are balanced and supported by a deep understanding of these early Christian texts and his knowledge and reading of both the Latin and the Greek sources are broad and judicious.

His book is divided into three substantial chapters—which treat respectively historical and textual matters, innovative features introduced by the Passio, and the Nachleben of the Passio—and a substantial bibliography. Chapter One is a lucid account of the place of the passion in the history of early martyr texts. Kitzler knows the tradition of both the Greek and the Latin texts of the second century and makes the important point that although they constitute a genre, they are not a “homogeneous corpus.” He distinguishes between Acta and Passiones, underscores the unique features in the PP, and shows its indebtedness to Judaeo-Christian apocalyptic literature. He accepts the autobiographical claims as genuine, dates the original Latin composition ca. 202–204 c.e., agrees that the so-called edict of persecution promulgated by Septimius Severus in the Historia Augusta (HA “SS,” 17) is a fiction, and notes that there are at least three authorial voices present (I now believe there are four). He also argues that the hand of the editor can be found throughout the text, that the editor was an eyewitness to the persecution, that Tertullian was not the author, and that the Greek text bears the unmistakable traits typical of a translation but may not have been translated from the Latin text in the nine surviving manuscripts. I fully agree with this judgment and agree with his further conclusion that, aside from some remarks in the Prologue, the text is not representative of the New Prophecy movement.

Chapter Two contains a discussion of women in the second-century church and the consolidation of authority in the role of the bishop. Martyrdom, irrespective of gender identity, was a vehicle to contest such aggregation of authority. Kitzler addresses the vexed issue of Perpetua’s lack of a husband. He opts for a reading that sees her abandoning him because he was a pagan, so that she could become matrona Christi. The text is silent on any conjugal relationships, and all our readings here are conjectural and do not resolve innumerable problems, e.g., the presence of a child and the father’s assumption of ownership. If Perpetua abandoned her husband as Kitzler indicates, the husband would still have retained potestas over her infant son as Roman law provides. A child, particularly a male child, was a valuable asset to a Roman family. If Perpetua left her husband, why would he allow her to take his son, and what would have been the legal basis for her father’s assumption of ownership? The ancient editor of the PP understands Roman law as the delay, as the pregnant Felicity makes quite clear. Interpretations on this familial crux vary widely from divorce to abandonment to the theory that she is a widow or a concubine, and thus the biological father never owned the child. The evidence is too scant to make a compelling argument. Kitzler provides solid commentary on the gender switching scenes, making good use of the work of Stephanie Cobb. I was somewhat surprised by his commentary that gladiators were “for the most part … free citizens” and their performance in the arena a manifestation of free choice and the desire to attain honor. Cicero seems not to have shared that opinion (Tusculan...