LA VIOLENZA NELLA LETTERATURA MARTIRIALE CRISTIANA DEI SECOLI III-V

Abstract

The paper aims to analyse violence in Christian literature of hagiographic content from the 3rd to the 5th century, in order to detect the evolution in the description of the violence by which the martyrìa is achieved. In a later period a particular taste for the macabre becomes more marked in the description of the torments to which the martyrs are subjected. The same aspect can also be noticed in some texts of the Christian poetic production on a similar topic: to give an example, the Peristephanon of Prudentius celebrates the deeds of Roman and Spanish martyrs with a gruesome descriptivism