Martyr democracy

For Clement of Alexandria, not death but martyrdom is the great leveler:

“Just as it is noble for a man to die for virtue, for freedom, and for himself, just so is it for woman. For it is not peculiar to the nature of males, but to the nature of the good. Therefore, the elder and the young person and the house-slave submitting to the commandment will live faithfully and, if it is necessary to die, which is to say through death be made alive. We know that children and slaves and women often against the wills of fathers and masters and husbands become the most excellent.”