Tertullus

Tertullus was the professional orator (rhetor) hired by the Jewish high priest Ananias and elders to prosecute Paul before the Roman governor Felix at Caesarea (Acts 24:1–8). His speech follows the conventions of Roman forensic oratory: an elaborate flattery of Felix in the opening (captatio benevolentiae), followed by three accusations — Paul was a public pest, a ringleader of the Nazarene sect, and a defiler of the temple. Paul refuted each charge systematically before Felix (Acts 24:10–21), noting that Tertullus' accusers could not produce witnesses for their claims. The episode illustrates the formal legal procedures of the Roman provincial court and the way early Christian leaders engaged official Roman institutions.