Description:"Perpetua and the Egyptian", the first comprehensive literary interpretation of an early Christian martyrdom text, the Passio Perpetuae, is important not only for patristic scholars, classicists and literary historians, but also - and especially - for all those working on the position of women in classical antiquity. This revised edition deals particularly with the literature which has appeared over the past decade and goes into more detail of the functions and addressees of the Passio in the African Church community of the early 3rd century.