“She Acted with Arrogance”

Abstract

This article investigates the characterization of women in Orosius' Historiae adversus paganos, a subject long overlooked. The Historiae enjoyed great popularity among medieval and renaissance scholars, and the way in which Orosius portrayed women had lasting literary influence. The representation of women as exempla is also intrinsically tied into the historiographical and biographical traditions of classical Latin literature, requiring examination of both Orosius' text and the classical influences that shape his work. This article begins by analyzing selected representations of women in Orosius' Historiae and then use these representations as a focus to explore his adaptation of the classical tradition.