Perpetua

The Woman, the Martyr

Sarah Ruden

$39.95

Hardback

Forthcoming
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English

Yale University
06 October 2025

Biography: religious & spiritual; History; European history; Christianity; Christian leaders & leadership

Series: Ancient Lives

An intimate and human portrait of Perpetua, a third-century woman author who was idealized as a Christian martyr

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.

By: Sarah Ruden
Imprint: Yale University
Country of Publication: United States
Dimensions: Height: 216mm, Width: 140mm,
ISBN: 9780300273717
ISBN 10: 0300273711
Series: Ancient Lives
Pages: 208
Publication Date: 06 October 2025
Audience: General/trade , ELT Advanced
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Forthcoming

Sarah Ruden is an award-winning classics scholar, a poet, and a writer on religion and culture. She is the author of Vergil: The Poet’s Life and numerous translations of Greek and Roman works. She lives in Hamden, CT.

Reviews for Perpetua: The Woman, the Martyr

“Sarah Ruden does justice to Perpetua’s remarkable prison diary in a way that few writers could. Ruden is one of our outstanding translators of ancient literature, and this lively and fascinating study draws on a rich understanding of Perpetua’s imaginative landscape.”—Kate Cooper, author of Queens of a Fallen World