ABSTRACT
The Pe. takes its place in the fourth century in an expanding Christian culture ever the more interested in hagiography, martyrdom and martyr cults, and the relationship of civic identity and faith, and takes shape against the backdrop of these competing strains of Christian activity. The collection is noteworthy for its metrical variety, its length, and its literary boldness, especially in the ways it often exploits the graphic details of violent death. 1 The title, Peristephanon, seems not to be owed to Prudentius, since Gennadius, writing in the fifth century, uses the Greek titles only for Apotheosis, Hamartigenia, and Psychomachia, but merely describes the poems of the Peristephanon without offering a title, Greek or otherwise. Nor does the conventional grouping of the fourteen poems seem to be owed to Prudentius’ hand. There are in fact grounds for doubting that the Pe. as we have it was conceived of, or collected, as a discrete gathering at all, though this can hardly lessen an appreciation of the Pe. or of its author’s voice and vision. 2
