Rea, J. and Clarke, L. 2017. Perpetua's Journey: Faith, Gender, and Power in the Roman Empire. Oxford Univerity Press.
This book is from Oxford University Press' Graphic History Series and includes a full translation of the text in the style of a graphic novel, a good overview of the cultural context of the Passio, and a useful bibliography.
Amphitheaters/spectacle/executions
Coleman, K. M. “Fatal Charades: Roman Executions Staged as Mythological Enactments.” The Journal of Roman Studies 80 (1990): 44–73. https://doi.org/10.2307/300280.
Gunderson, E. “The Ideology of the Arena.” Classical Antiquity 15, no. 1 (1996): 113–51. https://doi.org/10.2307/25011033.
Rea, J. A. “Transforming Civic Space into Sacred Space in the ‘Passio’ of Perpetua and Felicitas.” The Classical Outlook 91, no. 2 (2016): 46–50. http://www.jstor.org/stable/43940312.
Soren, D. “Carthage: A Mosaic of Ancient Tunisia.” Archaeology 40, no. 6 (1987): 58–61. http://www.jstor.org/stable/41731968.
Thompson, L. L. “The Martyrdom of Polycarp: Death in the Roman Games.” The Journal of Religion 82, no. 1 (2002): 27–52. http://www.jstor.org/stable/1205882.
Van Slyke, D.G. “The Devil and His Pomps in Fifth-Century Carthage: Renouncing Spectacula with Spectacular Imagery.” Dumbarton Oaks Papers 59 (2005): 53–72. https://doi.org/10.2307/4128750.
Welch, K. “Negotiating Roman Spectacle Architecture in the Greek World: Athens and Corinth.” Studies in the History of Art 56 (1999): 124–45. http://www.jstor.org/stable/42622236.
Prisons
Cadoux, T. J. “The Roman Carcer and Its Adjuncts.” Greece & Rome 55, no. 2 (2008): 202–21. http://www.jstor.org/stable/20204210.
Coleman, K. M. “Fatal Charades: Roman Executions Staged as Mythological Enactments.” The Journal of Roman Studies 80 (1990): 44–73. https://doi.org/10.2307/300280.
Larsen, M.D.C. and M. Letteney. Ancient Mediterranean Incarceration. (2025) University of California Press. https://www.ucpress.edu/books/ancient-mediterranean-incarceration/epub-pdf (free ebook)
McGowan, Andrew. “Discipline and Diet: Feeding the Martyrs in Roman Carthage.” The Harvard Theological Review96, no. 4 (2003): 455–76. http://www.jstor.org/stable/4151867.
Beasts/gladiators
Ball, D. “A Bear Hunt Mosaic.” The J. Paul Getty Museum Journal 12 (1984): 123–34. http://www.jstor.org/stable/4166509.
Carter, M. “Gladiatorial Combat with ‘Sharp’ Weapons (Τοι̑ϛ Ὀξέσι Σιδήροιϛ).” Zeitschrift Für Papyrologie Und Epigraphik 155 (2006): 161–75. http://www.jstor.org/stable/20191036.
Coleman, K. “‘The Contagion of the Throng’: Absorbing Violence in the Roman World.” Hermathena, no. 164 (1998): 65–88. http://www.jstor.org/stable/23041190.
Concannon, C. W. “‘Not for an Olive Wreath, but Our Lives’: Gladiators, Athletes, and Early Christian Bodies.” Journal of Biblical Literature 133, no. 1 (2014): 193–214. https://doi.org/10.15699/jbibllite.133.1.193.
Gunderson, E. “The Ideology of the Arena.” Classical Antiquity 15, no. 1 (1996): 113–51. https://doi.org/10.2307/25011033.
Lindstrøm, T. C. “The Animals of the Arena: How and Why Could Their Destruction and Death Be Endured and Enjoyed?” World Archaeology 42, no. 2 (2010): 310–23. http://www.jstor.org/stable/25679747.
Thompson, L. L. “The Martyrdom of Polycarp: Death in the Roman Games.” The Journal of Religion 82, no. 1 (2002): 27–52. http://www.jstor.org/stable/1205882.
Clothes/ shoes
Baker, S. A. “Loosing a Shoe Latchet: Sandals and Footwear in the First Century.” Brigham Young University Studies36, no. 3 (1996): 196–206. http://www.jstor.org/stable/43044126.
Cleland, L. “Not Nothing: Conceptualising Textile Whiteness for Cult Practice.” In Textiles and Cult in the Ancient Mediterranean, edited by C. Brøns and M-L. Nosch, 31:26–35. Oxbow Books, 2017. https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctvh1dszk.7.
Lovén, Lena Larsson. “On Priests, Priestesses, and Clothing in Roman Cult Practices.” In Textiles and Cult in the Ancient Mediterranean, edited by C. Brøns and M-L. Nosch, 31:135–42. Oxbow Books, 2017. https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctvh1dszk.17.
Place, A. “Reading Dress and Identity in the Roman Mosaics of Carthage and Tabarka.” In Textiles in Ancient Mediterranean Iconography, edited by S. Harris, C. Brøns, and M. Żuchowska, 179–92. Oxbow Books, 2022. https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctv2npq9bb.17.
Stears, K. E. “Dress and Textiles.” In The Edinburgh Companion to Ancient Greece and Rome, edited by E. Bispham, T. Harrison, and B. A. Sparkes, 226–30. Edinburgh University Press, 2010. http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.3366/j.ctt1g0b03m.34.
Vout, C. “The Myth of the Toga: Understanding the History of Roman Dress.” Greece & Rome 43, no. 2 (1996): 204–20. http://www.jstor.org/stable/643096.