ABSTRACT
Prudentius’ Psychomachia is part of an important corpus of Christian writings produced by an author well versed in classical literature. The poet who straddles the fourth and fifth centuries CE is generally recognised as a polemical proselytiser for the ‘official religion’ and one who broke new ground in appropriating classical genres for Christian subject-matter. His Peristephanon is a case in point: ‘Prudentius reclaimed classical poetic discourse for the martyrs’ crowns.’1 The following contribution to the debate on the Psychomachia has a similar underlying premise, but rather than travelling on the well trodden paths of Prudentius’ literary precedents, the emphasis will be upon his success in reconstructing the pagan locale of spectacle, in particular the arena as a place of public punishment.
