ABSTRACT
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 lllustribus permit us to believe that there were. In § liii he wrote: Tertulliamls presbyter nunc demum primus post Victorem et Apollonium ponitur. In 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 ApoUonius, whom he quoted some lines previously, it is true (§ 4), but amongst the Greek authors.
