A Convert in Roman Carthage
Quintus Septimius Florens Tertullianus was born around 155 to 160 in Carthage, the great Roman city of North Africa, and was raised a pagan. His writings show a superb education in rhetoric and literature and a lawyer's way of building an argument. Jerome, writing two centuries later, says that his father was a centurion in the governor's service and that Tertullian became a presbyter. Many modern scholars doubt both claims. Tertullian never calls himself a presbyter, and in one treatise he seems to count himself among the laity.
He came to Christ as an adult, before 197. He does not tell the story of his conversion, but he writes with deep admiration of Christians who went to their deaths rather than deny Christ, and their courage seems to have weighed heavily with him. He was married, and he wrote two short books to his wife.
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