Roman Imperial Identities in the Early Christian Era

"This book examines the overlapping emphases and themes of two cosmopolitan and multiethnic cultural identities emerging in the early centuries of the Common Era - a trans-empire alliance of the Elite and the "Christians". Exploring the cultural representations of these social identities, Judith Perkins shows that they converge around an array of shared themes: violence, the body, prisons, courts, and time. Her discussion offers a stimulating survey of interest to students of ancient narrative, cultural studies, and gender."--BOOK JACKET.

Judith Perkins argues that Christians were so successful in suppressing their social identity as inhabitants of the Roman Empire, that historical documents and testimony have been sequestered as "Christian", rather than recognized as evidence for the social dynamics enacted during the period. Her discussion offers a stimulating survey of interest to students of ancient narrative, cultural studies, and gender. Judith Perkins is Professor of Classics and Humanities at Saint Joseph College, Connecticut. She is the author of The Suffering Self (Routledge 1995).