This novel tells the story of early North African Christians whose lives belong with equal merit to the noble Christian history of Roman Africa. His source is perhaps the most vividly personal of all the extant records of the early Christian centuries. The Passion of Perpetua and Felicitas has attracted increased attention in recent decades because it includes the earliest known writing by a Christian woman - Perpetua's own prison diary, a text of quite remarkable sensitivity to women's experiences. The story of this group of Christian martyrs put to death at Carthage (near modern Tunis) in the year 203 has not yet been picked up by Hollywood, but this moving and dramatic Passion with its unimpeachable historical authenticity lends itself so naturally to the imaginative genre of a novel.