He addressed it, not to the emperor, but to the magistrates who sat in judgment on the accused.

It is a solemn and most earnest expostulation, setting forth all that could be said in explanation of the subject, a representation of the belief and cause of the Christians made in the imperial city in the face of the whole world, not a querulous or passionate ecclesiastical appeal, but a grave historical document.

It has ever been looked upon as one of the ablest of the early Christian works.

Its date is about A.D.

200.
With no inconsiderable skill Tertullian opens his argument.