Violent Histories: Women and Urban Unrest in Late Antique Historiography

17. Juni 2021 • 16:15 – 17:45 Uhr

 Dr. Ulriika Vihervalli, Liverpool

This paper examines the role of women in late antique urban unrest - in particular it takes a discursive approach, analysing how contemporary historians depicted a woman's place on occasions of civic violence. On the surface, women are in victimised positions: beaten, sexually abused, and killed. While these depictions are strengthening much older topoi set in particular by Livy and Tacitus, the paper argues that the late antique context exacerbated female-targeted violence, which Christian writers often sought to disguise.