Fourth Century North Africa was a site of intense religious and political conflict. Emerging from a period of persecution and newly legitimized by the Roman state, the Christian Church immediately fractured into two competing camps. Now known as the Donatist schism, this fracture was the result of competing claims to religious authority between two camps of bishops, but the doctrinal debate at its core precipitated a specific form of violence: attacks on clergy and property perpetrated by roving groups of militant bandits. Known as circumcellions, these bands acquired a perverse reputation for religious zeal, a desire for martyrdom, and what their opponents described as the ‘madness’ and ‘insanity’ of their violence. Here I analyze sources produced by both Donatists and Catholics to trace patterns of circumcellion violence. I draw on borderland theory and research on non-state violence to argue that such acts were not mad, but rather the result of strategic efforts to consolidate religious and political power. In this, Donatism and the sectarian violence that accompanied it provide important insights into how banditry and peasant rebellions can serve as alternate sources of social and political power, avenues through which heterodox movements challenge the power state and religious hierarchies alike.

中文翻译：

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土匪、武装分子和烈士：在古代北非晚期，次国家暴力作为对权威的要求

四世纪的北非是一个激烈的宗教和政治冲突的地方。基督教会从遭受迫害的时期出现并被罗马政府新近合法化，立即分裂为两个相互竞争的阵营。现在被称为 Donatist 分裂，这种分裂是两个主教阵营之间对宗教权威的竞争主张的结果，但其核心的教义辩论引发了一种特定形式的暴力：流动的激进土匪团体对神职人员和财产进行攻击. 被称为圆周率，这些乐队因宗教狂热、对殉难的渴望以及他们的反对者所描述的他们暴力的“疯狂”和“疯狂”而获得了反常的名声。在这里，我分析了多纳特派和天主教徒的资料，以追踪外周暴力的模式。我借鉴边疆理论和对非国家暴力的研究来论证这种行为不是疯狂的，而是巩固宗教和政治权力的战略努力的结果。在这方面，多纳主义及其伴随的宗派暴力提供了重要的见解，让我们了解土匪和农民叛乱如何作为社会和政治权力的替代来源，异端运动通过这些途径挑战权力国家和宗教等级制度。