Donatists and circumcelliones in Roman Africa: a theological, political or social problem?

Abstract

This work presents a critical analysis of the relationship that traditional historiography presupposes between the Donatist Church and the movement of the circumcelliones, starting from the theological motives that determined the emergence of donatismo and a proposal for the characterization of the circumcelliones, with the aim of studying the image that the sources have bequeathed to us about them and to check whether behind the figure of the violent and bloodthirsty peasant fanaticus was hidden a more complex social problem that, in some points, we can observe in other parts of the Empire.