Optatus of Thamugadi

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Optatus von Thamugadi was from 388 to 398 Donatist bishop in the city of Thamugadi ( Timgad ) in the Roman province of Numidia .

He plays an important role in the anti-Donatist polemics of Augustine , who at that time was bishop in Hippo Regius . Optatus is associated both with the militant Circumcellions , who are considered supporters of the Donatists, and with the renegade Roman general Gildo . Augustine blames Optatus for attacks on Catholics, but also on intra-Donatist opponents, the Maximinianists.

literature

  • William Frend : The Donatist Church. A movement of protest in Roman North Africa . Oxford 1951, pp. 208ff.
  • Enim Tengström: Donatists and Catholics, social, economic and political aspects of a North African church division . (= Studia Graeca et Latina Gothoburgensia 18) Göteborg 1964, p. 84ff. and 101f.
  • William Frend: Optatus of Thamugadi . In: Encyclopedia of the Early Church , Cambridge 1992, Vol. 2, p. 613.
  • Zeev Rubin : Mass movements in Late Antiquity - Appearences and realities . In: Irad Malkin, ZW Rubinsohn (Ed.): Leaders and masses in the Roman world. Studies in honor of Zvi Yavetz . Brill, Leiden u. a. 1995, ISBN 90-04-09917-4 , pp. 129-187 (on Optatus pp. 172ff.).
  • Otto Wermelinger: Optatus 4th In: The New Pauly (DNP). Volume 8, Metzler, Stuttgart 2000, ISBN 3-476-01478-9 , Sp. 1269.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Augustinus, epistula 87, 4 as well as Contra Litteras Petiliani 2, 6, 13 and a.
  2. ↑ Augustine, Contra litteras Petiliani 2, 83, 184 and 2, 35, 82 and 1, 10, 11.
personal data
SURNAME Optatus of Thamugadi
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Donatist bishop in the city of Thamugadi (Timgad)
DATE OF BIRTH 4th century
DATE OF DEATH 4th century