Quintus Septimius Florens Tertullianus, anglicised as Tertullian (/tərˈtʌliən/; c. 155 – c. 240 AD), was a prolific early Christian author from Carthage in the Roman province of Africa. He is the first Christian author to produce an extensive corpus of Latin Christian literature. He also was a notable early Christian apologist and a polemicist against heresy, including contemporary Christian Gnosticism.