Dying in Style : Spectacle, Dress, and Appearance in Ancient Christian Martyr Texts

In the second and third centuries, Christian martyr narratives were written to evoke spectacle. In Dying in Style, James Petitfils demonstrates how these accounts transform scenes of suffering into displays that assert the dignity and ethical distinction of Christians during a time of widespread belittlement and persecution. Attending to physicality, clothing, gestures, and facial expressions, Petitfils reads early Christian martyrdom accounts as performative literature crafted for largely illiterate audiences steeped in Roman spectacle culture. Through close readings of the Passion of Perpetua and Felicitas and other martyrdom narratives from the second and third centuries, Petitfils demonstrates how Christian viewers were invited to perceive martyrs not as low-status criminals but as aristocratic figures whose beauty and honor mirrored the imperial elite. Ultimately, Dying in Style reveals that Christian resistance to Roman power did not discard the empire’s visual hierarchies but rather appropriated them to subversive ends. By situating early Christian literature within the “visual turn” of socio-cultural studies, Dying in Style unpacks the profound influence of Roman spectacle on the martyr’s story. This book will be a vital resource for students and scholars of early Christianity, Roman social history, sensory history, and martyrdom studies.