Olivier:

If you are right on this, then we might as well give up doing historical work in the classics. The life of Paul is one of the solidly attested lives of an ancient that we have. We not only have his own writings (with names of the locales to which he wrote), but those of others that discuss him. For example, we have the letter of Clement who worked with Paul writing to the same city (Corinth) that Paul did, citing Paul's letter in the process. The only way one can get to your conclusion is to argue that all the literature we have about Paul (every bit of it) is made up. Most unlikely.

dlb