542 NOTES AND STUDIESSpirit He maintains and controls it. Although the description of theSpirit as an emanation is supported by a reference to the currentWisdom tradition, Athenagoras' conception of the Spirit's cosmicfunction seems to be more basically influenced by Platonic treatmentsof the World Soul in which the latter is on occasion referred to as andnoppoia. ABRAHAM J . MALHERBE

C I R C U M C E L L I O N S AND M O N K S

IN a brief study published in the jf.T.S. of 1952, I suggested that thecellae rusticanae round which Augustine stated that the African Circum-cellions dwelt for the sake of their sustenance (pictus sui causa)1 wereprobably the martyrs' shrines to be found in the villages that dottedthe plains of Numidia and Mauretania Sitifensis in the fourth and fifthcenturies.2 Since then much has been written about the Donatists andin particular about the Circumcellions,3 but on the whole, the 'martyrs'shrines' hypothesis has not won favour. 'Tuttavia Frend non convince'is the verdict of the most recent critic.4 Scholars have preferred themore traditional interpretation of cella = barn, particularly in view ofthe renewed interest in the economic role and legal status of theCircumcellions.5 Were the latter members of a clearly designated ordo,the lowest group of free men in Roman African society, but superiorto the coloni and slaves? Was their role primarily economic, as freeworkers employed particularly at harvest time on the great olive planta-tions of central and southern Numidia, and only incidentally religiousactivism on the side of the Donatists ? Is one justified in believing withBrisson that the information to be gleaned about the Circumcellionsfrom Honorius' anti-Donatist edict of 30 January 412 {Cod. Theod. xvi.5. 52) is 'peut-etre [le renseignement] le plus pre'cieux' concerningthem?6

1 Augustine, Contra Gaudentium (C.S.E.L. 53. 231), i. 28. 32. Compare

Enarr. in Ps. 132.3 'Circumcelliones dicti sunt quia circum cellas vagantur'(P.L. 36-7, 1730).

1 'The Cellae of the African Circumcellions', jf.T.S., N.s. iii (1952), pp. 87-90.

3 See the Bibliography to 1964 in Emin Tengstrom's Donatisten und Katho-

liken (Studia graeca et latina Gothoburgensia xviii, Goteborg, 1964), pp. 195-200, and the careful study by P.-A. Fevrier, 'Toujours le Donatisme, a quandl'Afrique', Rivista di storia e letteratura religiosa, ii (1966), pp. 228-40.

S. Calderone, 'Circumcelliones', La Parola del Passato, fasc. cxiii (1967),pp. 94-109 at p. 102.

5 For instance, J.-P. Brisson, Autonomisme et christianisme dans l'Afrique

romaine (Paris, 1958), p. 332 n. 4.6 J.-P. Brisson, op. cit., p. 334.

NOTES AND STUDIES 543The attempt to solve the problem of the Circumcellions by beginning

with their legal condicio has produced some interesting results. FollowingBrisson, H. J. Diesner has seen the Circumcellions as an Ordo con-sisting of juridically free workers who were able to use their standingto provide a sort of patrocinium to the multitude of ruined coloni andrunaway slaves referred to by Augustine as forming the mobs whosacked Catholic churches and terrorized agrarian society.1 Diesner'sdetailed survey of Augustine's references to Circumcellions in thediocese of Hippo2 has led him to believe that one could divide themovement into the solid core of Circumcellions who formed the Ordo,and the wide fringe of labourers who from time to time 'went over tothe Circumcellions'3 and participated in violent actions against theauthorities and the Catholics.

Diesner's emphasis however, on the social revolutionary role of theCircumcellions has been challenged by Emin Tengstrom. The latter'sthorough examination of the relevant texts of Optatus and Augustinebrings him to the conclusion that the primary role of the Circumcellionswas that of seasonal workers,4 though they incidentally formed a specialgroup within the Donatist Church. Even the famous clubs they carried,the 'Israels', were perhaps simply staves used to knock down the olivesoff trees during the harvest.5 Their main offence in the eyes of theauthorities and Augustine was that by violent and illegal acts theyprevented their co-religionaries being forced to go over to the Catholics.6In this situation the cellae rusticanae were most likely to be cellae oleariae,the storage-houses where the oil from the Numidian olive harvest wasgarnered.7

Recently, Professor Salvatore Calderone has examined Tengstrom'sthesis and insisted once more on the religious role of the Circum-cellions as providing the real clue towards understanding them.8 Hehas taken the argument further by pointing to the slightly embarrassed

1 Augustine, Epp. 108.6.18-19, I J I and 185.4.15. See H. J. Diesner, 'Metho-

disches und Sachliches zum Circumcellionentum' = Kirche und Staat imspatromischen Reich (Berlin, 1963), pp. 53-77.

2 'Die Circumcellionen von Hippo Regius', ibid., pp. 7890.

3 Augustine, Ep. 35.2, (C.S.E.L. 34.28) describing how a subdeacon and two

Catholic sanctimoniales, all of whom were coloni on a Catholic estate in thediocese of Hippo, had now joined the Circumcellions.

4 E. Tengstrom, op. cit., pp. 44 ff. and 64.

5 Ibid., pp. 51-2.

6 Tengstrom, op. cit., p. 69: 'Die Circumcellionen versuchten also durch

ungesetzliche Aktionen vor allem zu verhindern dass die donatistischen coloniund servi genotigt wurden, zur katholischen Kirche iiberzugehen.'

' Ibid., p. 56.8 S. Calderone, op. cit.

544 NOTES AND STUDIEScomparisons made by Augustine1 and by later writers, such as Prae-destinatus (c. 440) between the Circumcellions and monks.2 In so doinghe draws attention to the strange term Cotopitae used by Isidore ofSeville and following him by Beatus of Liebana to describe them.'Circumcelliones dicti, eo quod agrestes sint, quos Cotopitas vocant.'3Beatus (or Tyconius) believed that the word Cotopitae came from theGreek,* but Calderone has suggested with a good deal of plausibility thatin reality it was formed from two Coptic words, Kote / ket- meaning'to move around' or 'wander', and 'aouet', a cenobitical monastic settle-ment.5 The word as pronounced 'ketaubit' would be transliterated intoLatin Cotopita, and the Coptic characters could easily be mistaken forGreek where Greek was not widely learnt. That Isidore intended tocompare the Circumcellions with monks is evident from another passagein which he lists the Circumcellions as 'the fifth category of monk'.6Moreover, their wandering from place to place that has caused somerecent critics so much trouble is precisely the activity, apart fromtheir violence and revolutionary outlook, that most impressed contem-poraries.7

Even without Isidore's suspect etymology one would be led to asso-ciate the wandering about of the Circumcellions less with seasonallabour than with martyrs' shrines. Tyconius, quoted by Beatus, saysthat the Circumcellions were superstitious folk and that they spenttheir time visiting the tombs of martyrs, as they believed, for the salva-tion of their souls.8 Augustine moreover, though he hated them for

1 Augustine, Enarr. in Ps. 132. 3 (P.L. 36-7. 1730); De opere monachorum,

28. 36 {C.S.E.L. 41. 585) and Epistola ad Cathol. contra Don. 19. 50 (C.S.E.L.52. 297). 2 Praedestinatus, De Haeresibus, 69 (P.L. 53. 61 IB).

3 Isidore, Etymologiarum Libri (P.L. 82. 302) viii. 5. 53.

4 Beatus, in Apocalyps. Praefatio 5. 53. T. Hahn, Tyconius-Studien (Leipzig,

1900), p. 68 n. i, attributes this passage to Tyconius. Augustine, Ep. 53.2 andAd Cathol. Ep. 3. 6, says that the Roman Donatists were called Cutzupitae,and so the term may have been in use at the end of the fourth century. On theother hand, Beatus apart from drawing on Tyconius may have also been con-flating a number of passages concerning the Circumcellions from Augustineand Isidore (his phrase referring to the Circumcellions as 'circumeunt provincias'occurs in De opere monachorum, 28. 36, and in Isidore, De offic. eccl. ii. 16. 7).Cotopita is not known to have been used by the Donatists as a description of theCircumcellions in their controversy with Augustine.

5 Calderone, op. cit., p. 102. References in n. 22.

6 De offic. eccl. ii. 16: 'Quintum genus (monachorum) est Circumcellionum

qui sub habitu monachorum usquequaque vagantur' (P.L. 83. 796-^7).7 Augustine, Enarr. in Ps. 132. 3; cf. De opere monachorum, ii. 28. 36.

8 'Sed ut diximus, diversas terras circuire et sanctorum sepulchra pervidere

quasi pro salute animae suae'. Tyconius, ap. Beatum. Cited from Hahn, op.cit., p. 68. Compare also Augustine, Ep. ad Cath. 19. 50, 'ad eorum sepulchra(i.e. of Circumcellion 'martyrs') ebriosi greges vagorum et vagarum . . .'.

NOTES AND STUDIES 545their violence and treated them as a menace to established agrarianorder, did not deny that there was a religious aspect to their activities,namely imitation of and service to martyrs.1 He accepts that the womenascetics who accompanied them shared the name of sanctimoniales withtheir Catholic counterparts however grossly they abused it.2 Moreover,the Circumcellions were 'idle' so far as honest work was concerned.3Never once does he imply that their peregrinations had anything to dowith the needs of the Numidian olive-harvest. Rather they were aimedat selling martyrs' relics.4

It is easy to point to Egyptian ascetics in the late fourth and fifthcentury who shared to some extent the outlook and activities of theCircumcellions. In general, wandering monks were regarded as a pestby those who drew up monastic Rules and by the authorities. If foundin the cities they were sent back to the desert.s There some of theirleaders made little attempt to disguise their antagonism for oppressivelandowners, especially if they were pagans. At Schenuti's behest islandvineyards belonging to proprietors in the town of Ashmin were sunkbeneath the waters of the Nile when local farmers complained thatunfair rents were being extorted from them.6 In Syria the destructionof debtors' bonds by Simon Stylites provides an exact parallel to theactivities of the Circumcellions,7 and it is undeniable that the Syrianmonks owed much of their popularity to their ability to protect villagersamong whom they settled from oppression.8 Thus in East and Westwe find ascetic religious groups dominated by passions for egalitarianjustice coming into being in response to the social and economic condi-tions of the day. In the East, however, the activities of the monks weretolerated, partly because monasticism was the most highly regardedmeans of salvation, and perhaps also because monks were concerned

1 For instance, Contra epist. Parmeniani, iii. 6. 29 (C.S.E.L. 51. 138), 'ad

suum nomen convertere cupientes interim temporalia supplicia schismatis suiconferre audent passionibus martyrum, ut eis poenarum suarum nataliciacelebrentur magno conventu hominum furiosorum . . .'. Compare Ep. 108. 6. 18,'agonistici confessores vestri'.

2 Contra Gaudentium, i. 36. 46 (C.S.E.L. S3- 24&)- F r Catholic sancti-

moniales, see Contra litteras Petiliani, iii. 17. 20 (C.S.E.L. 52. 177) and Ep. 35. 2.3 Contra Gaudentium, i. 28. 32, 'ab utilibus operibus otiosum'.

4 De opere monachorum, 28. 36: 'Alii membra martyrum, si tamen martyrum,

venditant.'5 Codex Theodosianus, xvi. 3. 1 and 2; compare xii. 1. 63.

6 Bohairic Life of Sehenuti by Besa (eds. H. Wiesmann and R. Draguet),

C.S.C.O. 129, Script. Coptici 16 (Louvain, 1951), cc. 85-6.7 See A. Voobus, History of Asceticism in the Syrian Orient (C.S.C.O.,

Subsidia 17, Louvain, i960), p. 376, citing the Syriac Vita Symeonis.8 See, for instance, the exploits of the monks Maisumas and Abraames as

narrated by Theodoret, Hist, relig. xiv and xvii.

546 NOTES AND STUDIESto right individual wrongs and were not considered enemies of the exist-ing system of economic and social relationships. The Circumcellionson the other hand were so regarded. It was not only their Donatismbut their liberation of slaves, reversal of the established social order,and in general their encouragement of 'audacia rusticana' that madethem so feared and hated.1 Their courtship of the martyr's death atthe hands of the authority was a direct continuation of the theology ofsuffering and martyrdom that had dominated African theology in theprevious century. In the East, however, the monk had effectivelyreplaced the confessor.

The Circumcellions were not, however, monks, and the Donatistsrepudiated the term.2 One cannot therefore go the whole way withCalderone and see in their cellae colonies of monastic cells, whosepresence in North Africa is marked by place names such as ChellensesNumidae or Cellae Vatari.3 Fortunately evidence has now come to lightwhich does away with this need. In 1964, P.-A. Fevrier published thefollowing inscription from Koudiat Adjala in Mauretania Sitifensis:

C(aius) J(ulius) Castus grado sacerdotali legis / sacrae secundus C(aius)Jul(ius) Honori filius / iam LXVIIII annos agens hoc sibi in animum /deliberavit ut incolumis et in rebus huma/nis agens hanc suae memoriaesedem perpetuam constituere a(nno) p(rovinciae) CCCXXII cel/lammartyrum vocavit Luciani et Lucillae. Dep(ositus?) vi. K. sep.4

The inscription, dated to 361, is interesting for many reasons, not leastthat in this elaborate memorial Christianity is described as a 'law', 'lexsacra'. Lucianus and Lucilla are not known elsewhere as a pair ofmartyrs, though there was a Donatist bishop named Lucianus whosigned the original appeal to Constantine against Caecilian in 313 s andLucilla was the wealthy sponsor of the original anti-Caecilianist bishopMajorinus. Whatever the identification of the two martyrs may be atwhose shrine Caius Julius Castus was buried, it seems quite clear thatthe building erected in their honour was called a 'cella martyrum'(cel\lam martyrum vocavit Luciani et Lucillae). As Circumcellions alsowere characterized as spending their time on a constant round of visitsto the tombs of martyrs, the derivation of their name from 'circumcellas' from 'around the tombs of martyrs' becomes arguable once more.

1 See Augustine, Epp. 108. 6. 18 and 185. 4. 15the classic statements of

Circumcellions as revolutionaries. Compare Optatus of Milev, iii. 4, dealing withthe situation seventy years before.

2 Augustine, Enarr. in Ps. 132. 3, and Contra litteras Petiliani, iii. 40. 48.

3 Calderone, op. cit., p. 104 n. 31.

4 P.-A. Fevrier, 'Inscriptions funeraires de Maurtanie', Melanges de l'cole

franfaise de Rome, lxxvi (1964), p. 158. Cf. also ibid., p. 127.5 Optatus, De schismate, 1. 22.

FIG. I .

FIG. 2.

Fie. 3.(Photo: M. Martin)

Plate 1. W. H. C. FREND

NOTES AND STUDIES 547In this situation one may also look again at the archaeological evi-

dence. Archaeologists have been puzzled by the existence of a numberof elaborate but apparently wholly domestic structures associated withchurches in rural Numidia and Mauretania. At the little Numidianchapel of Azrou Zaouia on the plains south-west of Constantine thesacristy on the north side behind the altar contained two deep silosfor storing grain, and there was a range of rooms leading off it whoseextent, however, remains to be determined (see Plate 1). Here, at anyrate, the Circumcellions visiting the chapel and its relics could havereceived sustenance.1 Other more elaborate Christian buildings in thesame areas whose function has never been adequately explained beginto fit the Circumcellion-Cotopitae picture. In 1933, for instance, W.Seston published the description of a building at Ain Tamda in Maure-tania which he believed to have been a monastery.2 This massive com-plex of buildings consisted of a church 25 m. long on to which had beenbuilt a series of rooms set round a rectangular court 20 m. x 18 m. sothat the church formed the west side. The area was entered by a dooron the east side of the court. Seston was puzzled because these buildingsdid not fit into any known monastic plan, and in particular, the buildingsset round the court did not suggest monks' cells. Moreover, the erectionof a monastery up country and far from civilized centres seemed toconflict with the specific advice given by Fulgentius of Ruspe, c. 500,that monasteries should be built on fertile land near a villa well pro-vided with gardens.3

Ain Tamda does not, however, stand alone. At the central Numidiansite at Bir Djedid, the main church in the village was separated bya narrow corridor from an extensive complex of roughly constructedbuildings set round a courtyard.4 The rooms included a number ob-viously used for storing grain and olives. At Kherbet Bahrarou, north-west of Timgad, the writer of this article partially excavated anothersimilar complex, the church occupying the east end of a courtyard,and again, numerous fragments of storage jars in some of the roomsleft little doubt as to their purpose. The building was only a few yardsaway from an olive press of the same period.

1 Two silos were found also in a room adjoining the south-west angle of a

church at Mechta el Tein north of Batna, in one of which a Christian lamp wasfound: A. Berthier and colleagues, Les Vestiges du christianisme antique dans laNumidie centrale (Algiers, 1942), p. 147. For Azrou Zaouia see ibid., p. 139.

2 W. Seston, 'Le monastere d'Ain Tamda et les origines d'architecture

monastique en Afrique du Nord', Melanges de l'cole franfaise de Rome, li(i934). PP. 74-i 13-

3 Ferrandus, Vita Sancti Fulgentii, 10 (ed. Lapeyre, 1931).

4 Briefly described by A. Berthier, op. cit., p. 129. Silos were found in the

floors of some of these rooms.

548 NOTES AND STUDIESAt the time, the parallel of the modern Moorish tighremt suggested

itself, which is a courtyard building one side of which is occupied bya mosque but the remainder used for domestic purposes. It is difficultto see the origins and use of these buildings outside rural North Africanreligious life, and this involves in the fourth and fifth centuries somepurpose within the context of Donatism. The comparison betweenCircumcellions and monks becomes more interesting as these buildingshad both a religious and an economic purpose. The churches housed relicsof martyrs and the surrounding rooms provided ample means of sus-tenance for temporary or semi-permanent inmates. The famous turmaeor 'bands' of Circumcellions could have found them convenient centres,and their use as habitations could have brought to mind a comparisonwith the host of small monasteries that were springing up at this periodin the Egyptian countryside, and hence the application of the term'Cotopitae' to them.

One final point concerns the term 'ordo' as applied to the Circum-cellions. Saumagne,1 Brisson,2 and many others have justifiably drawnattention to this description used in 412 by imperial civil servants atRavenna, and at first sight their identification with seasonal workerson the lines suggested by the famous third-century inscription (C.I.L.viii. 11824) is attractive. As we have seen, however, there is no evidencefor this, and one suspects that too much weight may have been placedon the appearance of the term in the single edict of Honorius. Ordo canbe used more simply as a 'guild' ;3 and perhaps more significantly, themonks in Egypt and elsewhere sometimes referred to in the fifth cen-tury as forming part of a taxis (ragis) or tagma (ray/ia),4 a term that hasthe same meaning as Ordo. On papyri it denotes an organized andrecognizable body of individuals, such as the monks were, as well asan official grade or rank, such as the tagma of gymnasiarchs fromOxyrhynchus.5 For instance, at the second session of the SecondCouncil of Ephesus on 22 August 449, what is described as 'the entirelaity and the ray/m of the monks' swore that they would not remain incommunion with Sophronius, Bishop of Telia who was accused of

1 C. Saumagne, 'Ouvriers agricoles ou r6deurs de celliers ? Les Circumcellions

d'Afrique', Annales d'Histoire economique et sociale, vi (1934), pp. 351-64,especially pp. 355-6.

2 J.-B. Brisson, op. cit., p. 338.

3 C.I.L. vi. 33885 (2nd cent.) and xiv. 250 (A.D. 152). I owe these references

to Mr. H. G. Lee.4 For instance, Vita Danielis Stylitae (ed. H. Delehaye, Les Saints Stylites

(Paris, 1923), 86), rats ayuDTarais CVKAIJOICUS KO.1 T

NOTES AND STUDIES 549practising magic.1 One might argue that with his rough monk-like ap-pearance,2 his club, and his dwelling round the shrines of martyrs in thevillages on the great landed estates of Numidia, the Circumcellion couldwell be classed for the purpose of punishment as an Ordo. He was amember of a distinctive group and could, if identified, be mulcted 10 lb.of silver. Since the term is not applied to him subsequently nothingmore technical may have been implied.3

Most of the questions relating to the pattern of rural society in late-Roman North Africa must await renewed work by archaeologists. Fromtime to time a chance find like the inscription from Koudiat Adjalasheds light on a problem which has hitherto defied solution. If thecella of the Circumcellion can now be said with more confidence thanpreviously to have been a chapel where martyrs' relics were housed,then a reconsideration of the texts of Optatus, Tyconius, and Augustinemay lead once more to the Circumcellions being studied primarilywithin the context of Donatism. To their supporters they were theagonistici, continuing by their way of life traditional aspirations tomartyrdom in the African Church, while their resistance to every formof persecution maintained the struggle of the Christians against 'theworld and its rulers' of pre-Constantinian times.4 In the framework ofapocalyptic and martyr-dominated Donatist theology their role asagrarian revolutionaries becomes easy to understand. The combinationof both activities is attested by an abundance of surviving texts; andthis was how their African contemporaries saw them.

W. H. C. FREND1 Akten der ephesinischen Synode vom Jahre 449 (ed. J. Flemming, Abhand-

lungen Konig. Gesell. Gottingen, N. F. Band 15, 1914-17, 1. 82).2 Isidore's description of Circumcellions (De qffic. eccl. ii. 16. 7) 'qui sub

habitu monachorum usquequaque vagantur', and Praedestinatus' of them'veluti monachos' (De Haeres. 69).

3 Is there any need for instance to accept with Diesner ('Methodisches und

Sachliches', p. 75) that as part of the government's anti-Donatist measuresbetween 412 and 414 the Ordo of the Circumcellions was dissolved? For dis-cussion of the problem, see E. Tengstrom, op. cit., pp. 27 ff.

4 Augustine, Enarr. in Ps. 132. 6: 'Agonisticos eos vocant.' Compare Optatus,

iii. 4, 'circumcellionesagonisticos nuncupans' (C.S.E.L. 26. 81). In particular,Augustine, Ep. 108. 6. 18 (C.S.E.L. 34. 632) where the connection betweenagonistici and rusticana audacia contra possessores is plainly set out.

621.2 N n