Optatus of Thamugadai
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Optatus of Thamugadi was, from 388 to 398, a donatist bishop in the city of Thamugadi (Timgad) in the Roman province of Numidia.[1][2][3] He was an important subject in the anti-donatistic polemic of Augustine,[4] who was at that time a bishop in Hippo Regius and who called him evil.[5]
Optatus was associated both with the militant Circumcellions, which are regarded as adherents of the Donatists, as well as with the renegade Roman general Gildo. Augustine made Optatus responsible for attacks on Catholics, but also at the anti-Donatist opponents, the Maximinianists.[6]