The Christian writer Caecilius Cyprianus (c. 200-258 AD) was born at Carthage. During the Decian persecution (250 AD) he went into hiding. In the persecution under Valerian he was beheaded. Meiggs (p. 403): "Already in the third century Cyprian writes of the many confessors of the faith who came from Africa, and of their reception at Portus".
| For this, my lord and brother, you ought to know, that it is not I alone who ask this on their behalf, but also Statius and Severianus, and all the confessors who have come thence hither from you; to whom these very sisters went down to the harbour and took them up into the city, and they have ministered to sixty-five, and even to this day have tended them in all things, for all are with them. |