Voices from Carthage

Carthage, located in North Africa, has as long and storied a history as Rome itself. In Virgil's Aeneid, Carthage is being built under the direction of the great Dido, who falls in love with Aeneas when he stops there. When he abandons her and sails onwards to Italy, she kills herself. Historically, Carthage was a Phoenician colony; the Phoenicians were a Semitic people known for being merchants, sailing throughout the Mediterranean basin. It was the Phoenicians who created the first true alphabet, with twenty-two letters, although it lacked vowels. This alphabet was borrowed by the Greeks, and comes down to us today. As Roman power grew beyond the Italian Peninsula in the third century BCE, Rome came into conflict with the powerful Phoenician colony, Carthage, and fought a series of three wars, called the Punic Wars, ultimately bringing Carthage and parts of North Africa under Roman control.

By 200 CE, the time during which Perpetua and Felicity lived, Carthage and North Africa were part of the massive Roman Empire that sprawled across the Mediterranean basin. Christianity had also come to Rome, spread throughout the Empire by traders, missionaries, and other travelers. Christians, of course, famously ran afoul of the imperial Roman government for their refusal to worship the traditional Roman gods and especially the emperor, which was widely seen as being the cause of any problems experienced locally or in the wider world. Because of this, Christians were labelled traitors. If brought before a magistrate, they were asked to sacrifice to the emperor and the Roman gods; if they did this, they would be freed. Many Christians, like Felicity and Perpetua, proudly chose to become martyrs, refusing to compromise their faith and proudly dying in imitation of Jesus Christ.

Perpetua and Felicity are well known to us because the story of their martyrdom, part of which is written by Perpetua herself, has survived; providing us with their story in her own words. The text comes from Perpetua's diary in prison; the full text includes an introduction and conclusion that were written later by another of Perpetua and Felicity's congregation.

Excerpts from the Passion of Saints Perpetua and Felicity

Read the full text of the Passion of Saints Perpetua and Felicity here.

“During these few days I was baptized, and I was inspired by the Spirit not to ask for any other favor after the water but simply the perseverance of the flesh. A few days later we were lodged in the prison; and I was terrified, as I had never before been in such a dark hole. What a difficult time it was! With the crowd the heat was stifling; then there was the extortion of the soldiers; and to crown all, I was tortured with worry for my baby there.”

“One day while we were eating breakfast we were suddenly hurried off for a hearing. We arrived at the forum, and straight away the story went about the neighborhood near the forum and a huge crowd gathered. We walked up to the prisoner's dock. All the others when questioned admitted their guilt. Then, when it came my turn, my father appeared with my son, dragged me from the step, and said: 'Perform the sacrifice--have pity on your baby!' Hilarianus the governor, who had received his judicial powers as the successor of the late proconsul Minucius Timinianus, said to me: 'Have pity on your father's grey head; have pity on your infant son. Offer the sacrifice for the welfare of the emperors.' 'I will not', I retorted. 'Are you a Christian?' said Hilarianus. And I said: 'Yes, I am.' When my father persisted in trying to dissuade me, Hilarianus ordered him to be thrown to the ground and beaten with a rod. I felt sorry for father, just as if I myself had been beaten. I felt sorry for his pathetic old age. Then Hilarianus passed sentence on all of us: we were condemned to the beasts, and we returned to prison in high spirits. But my baby had got used to being nursed at the breast and to staying with me in prison. So I sent the deacon Pomponius straight away to my father to ask for the baby. But father refused to give him over. But as God willed, the baby had no further desire for the breast, nor did I suffer any inflammation; and so I was relieved of any anxiety for my child and of any discomfort in my breasts....”

“Such were the remarkable visions of these martyrs, Saturus and Perpetua, written by themselves.”

In the selections here, we see Perpetua's determination and dedication to her faith, but also her complicated relationships with her family, represented by her father and her baby.

The scene depicted here - where Perpetua is asked by the governor to sacrifice to the emperor in order to be freed - is typical of those of martyrdoms. Perpetua stands firm even when her father is beaten (perhaps this is why the governor asked her to have pity "on her father's grey head"?). An interesting point of comparison is provided in the full text of the document by Perpetua's companion, Felicity. Felicity was an enslaved woman, and was herself pregnant when the two were captured. Their story highlights the complicated nature of the relationships between enslavers and the enslaved, as well as fathers, daughters, and their children.

Perpetua and Felicity: Black Saints?

Perpetua and Felicity were from Carthage, in North Africa, but have been depicted visually as racially white. There is little evidence in the text to support or disprove this depiction.

They are widely lauded as Black saints and illustrate the influential role in the early Christian Church played by African communities.

Many artists of the twentieth and twentieth centuries, such as in this icon by Robert Lentz, have beautifully depicted the pair as Black women embracing in solidarity.

The Items on Display

Four items from the collection have been chosen to represent Felicity and Perpetua's identities as Christians and mothers. None of these items are actually from Carthage, however, it is likely that similar items would have been imported from points around the Roman Empire.

The two lamps on display here speak to their Christian heritage; these humble mold-made oil lamps are both illustrated with Christian imagery. One (to the left) shows the monogram of Christ on the discus, known as the Chi-Rho (so-called because it is the combination of the Greek letters Chi and Rho, the first two letters of Christos in Greek).

Lamp with Hunting Scene — Lamp with a Hunting Scene

The second lamp (displayed below) appears to show a hunting scene on the discus. While the design has been almost entirely obliterated, it is possible to make out a person with a spear raised and an animal running. Raised decorations surround the center discus, showing animals rotating with spear heads. While found in Corinth, it is possible that it was imported from North Africa.

The two vases here are baby feeders, early versions of the modern bottle, used to feed babies when they were not breast-fed. One is very modest, in a course orange clay without decoration; the other (dating to the Hellenistic Period) is smaller but nicely decorated with a wave decoration in the Italian Red Figure style.

Italian Red Figure Baby Feeder, Hellenistic

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