Date of Award
8-2014
Degree Name
Master of Arts
Department
History
First Advisor
Dr. Anise K. Strong
Second Advisor
Dr. E. Rozanne Elder
Third Advisor
Dr. Larry J. Simon
Keywords
Patristics, epigraphy, women, Christianity, late antiquity
Access Setting
Masters Thesis-Open Access
Abstract
Accessing the everyday experiences of late antique non-elite Roman women in the Latin west is limited by sources and issues of authorship. Interdisciplinary scholarship, however, has opened up new avenues in recent years through which these women’s experiences may be studied. When literary-historical questions are asked of these sources’ authors, audiences, motives and intents, the answers provide insight into the roles women and femininity played in early Christianity. By examining an array of late antique Roman representations of good classical women, a unique continuity is seen in the transition from pagan to Christian Rome. The Latin patristic writers capitalized on provincial attitudes towards women and encouraged holy women to exhibit pudicitia—a traditionally pagan virtue— within their relationship with Christ and the Church. In these ways, both lay provincial citizens and the Latin Church Fathers called upon the collective memory of good Roman women in order to facilitate Christianity’s acceptance, effectively elevating women to unique and influential positions within the Church and empire.
Recommended Citation
Petty, Iris Rebecca, "The Pagan Pudicitia of Early Christian Roman Women" (2014). Masters Theses. 531.
https://scholarworks.wmich.edu/masters_theses/531