ABSTRACT
CHAPTER I1 THE FIRST CHRISTIAN WRITERS IN THE LATIN
TONGUE : TERTULLIAN
52 FIRST CHRISTIAN WRITERS IN LATIN 111. The Martyrdom of Perpetua and Felicitas. -Text in P.L., 111,
IF we take away the translators of the Bible, were there any Christian writers before Tertullian who wrote in Latin ? Certain hints given by St Jerome in his de Viris Illustribus permit us to believe that there were. In § liii he wrote : Tertullianus presbyter nunc demum primus post Victorem et Apollonium ponitur. I n another place, in Epistle LXX, 5, while giving a list of the principal Christian authors, he places Tertullian first. He does not mention Victor and does not breathe a word of Apollonius, whom he quoted some lines previously, it is true ( $ 4), but amongst the Greek authors.
