Carthage

Rome's rebuilt rival city, which became the intellectual capital of Latin Christianity: Tertullian trained as a lawyer here before defending the new faith, and Augustine studied rhetoric here as a young man.

Carthage was destroyed by Rome and then rebuilt by it, and by the second century it was the second city of the Latin west, with an amphitheatre, a busy harbour, and a reputation for pleasure that Augustine confirms in the Confessions. Tertullian trained in its law courts and brought a lawyer's aggression to Christian argument. Augustine arrived as a student at seventeen, took a mistress, had a son, and taught rhetoric for years before sailing for Rome without telling his mother.