A arenga militar feminina na historiografia portuguesa quinhentista

This paper examines how sixteenth century Portuguese historiography adapted a type of discoursethat already had some examples in Roman historiography: the female military harangue. In particular, we identifythe narrative contexts which favour its occurrence, its discursive typology and most recurrent argumentativetopics and their relationship to the previous rhetorical tradition and also to the coeval historical framework.Finally, we also verify the functions that these discourses play in the historical works to which they belong. Theprotagonists of these speeches are the women of Diu, who, in the sieges of 1538 and 1546, helped by work andwords of encouragement, to defeat the attacks of the Turks to that citadel. How the Portuguese were looked atby the "Other" in the elaborate harangue of the queen of Ternate, clear example of the assimilation of militaryrhetoric by the Renaissance Portuguese historians, is considered.