The Epistles of Cyprian.
Carthage · 258
C
Cyprian
Cyprian
210 CE–258 CE · Carthage
Cyprian (c. 200–258 CE) was probably born in North Africa, traditionally identified with Carthage, though no primary source explicitly names his birthplace. He converted to Christianity around 245–246 and was elected bishop of Carthage within a few years of his baptism. He led the North African church through the Decian and Valerian persecutions, corresponding extensively with Rome and other sees while forging a theology of episcopal unity in his treatise On the Unity of the Church. He was arrested under the Valerian edict of 257, exiled to Curubis by the proconsul Aspasius Paternus, recalled to Carthage, tried by the proconsul Galerius Maximus, and beheaded at the Villa Sexti near Carthage on 14 September 258 — the first bishop of Carthage to die a martyr.
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Stop 1 of 3210–257Rhetor, Convert, Bishop
CarthageAfrica Proconsularis
What they did here
Probably born at Carthage to a wealthy pagan family, he taught rhetoric, converted c. 246, became bishop of Carthage c. 248–249, and led the church through the Decian persecution (in hiding, 250–251) and the controversy over the lapsed.
Carthage in this era
Under Roman imperial rule, Carthage was the intellectual capital of Latin Christianity: Tertullian wrote the first major Latin theology here, Cyprian served as its bishop and was martyred in 258 CE, and a series of African councils shaped early church discipline.
About Carthage
Carthage, beside the Lake of Tunis near modern Tunis in Tunisia, was founded by Phoenician settlers (tradition names Queen Dido as founder). It grew into a Mediterranean power until Rome destroyed it in 146 BCE at the end of the Third Punic War, a sack the historian Polybius witnessed. Julius Caesar refounded it, and it became the centre of the Roman province of Africa, where Apuleius studied. Carthage was a major centre of Latin Christianity: Tertullian wrote there, Cyprian was its bishop until his martyrdom in 258, its councils such as that of 397 shaped the Western church, and the Donatist controversy divided it. Vandals, Byzantines and finally, in 698, Umayyad forces took the city.
In Carthage at the same time
In the same place & time
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Sages whose lives overlapped with Cyprian’s in the same cities, drawn from their recorded journeys.
In the same tradition
The world in their lifetime
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Thinkers and teachers of other traditions whose lives overlapped with Cyprian’s — a glimpse of the wider world they lived in. Drawn purely from recorded birth and death years.
Works(5)
Treatises Attributed to Cyprian on Questionable Authority.
Carthage · 258
The Seventh Council of Carthage under Cyprian. Concerning the Baptism of Heretics.
Carthage · 258
The Treatises of Cyprian.
Carthage · 258
The Life and Passion of Cyprian, Bishop and Martyr. By Pontius the Deacon.
Carthage · 258