Tertullian lived and wrote in Roman Carthage during the reigns of Septimus Severus (193-211) and his son Caracalla (211-217). His voluminous tracts and pamphlets reveal the atmosphere of early Christianity in an era of persecution. The author sets Tertullian's writings within a chronological and historical framework, then uses them to interpret Tertullian's intellectial development, his reaction to the society in which he lived, and his place in Latin literature.