ABSTRACT
In 248 CE, the Christian community in Carthage elected Thascius Caecilianus Cyprianus its bishop. This wealthy aristocrat, trained as a rhetorician, had become a Christian a scant two years earlier. Since he was still a neophyte, the laity seems to have overridden the objections of a majority of their presbyters in choosing him as bishop.1 In ascending to office as bishop of Carthage, this Christian “new man” became the leader not only of the bishops of Proconsular Africa but of all Latin Africa, as far west as the Atlantic. At his summons, eighty-five bishops would converge on Carthage; at his prompting, they would speak with a single voice. His episcopate would prove foundational for the development of North African Christianity.
