Brent Shaw's Sacred Violence is a comprehensive modern academic study of the sectarian conflict between Donatist and Catholic Christians in Roman North Africa from the early fourth century through the age of Augustine of Hippo in the early fifth, treating in particular detail the circumcellions, bands of rural laborers and the itinerant poor who carried out attacks on Catholic clergy and property in the Donatist cause. Shaw, a professor of classics at Princeton University, reads the conflict as a genuine sectarian civil struggle rather than a simple doctrinal disagreement, reconstructed from Augustine's own writings, imperial law codes and the acts of church councils.
Facts
Citation
PublisherCambridge University Press 1 Publication Year Assessment
Reliability TierA major peer-reviewed academic monograph from a leading university press, by a named professor of classics, and treated by later reviewers as the standard modern treatment of the circumcellion violence specifically, superseding earlier accounts including Frend's. Cross-Tradition Connections
Associated With
This source names Augustine of Hippo directly: "fourth century through the age of Augustine of Hippo in the early fifth, treating in particular detail the circumcellions, bands of rural laborers and the itinerant poor who carried out attacks on..."
This source names North Africa directly: "and Catholic Christians in Roman North Africa from the early fourth century through the age of Augustine of Hippo in the early fifth, treating in particular detail the circumcellions, bands of rural..."
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Claims Backed By This Source (26 claims)
This source backs 26 claims across the atlas. As facts: 19 well-attested. As cited relationships: 1 holds, 2 connected. Plus 4 entities citing it as a general reference with no single fact or relationship attached.
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- Articles, 14 claims: 10 well-attested, 2 connected, 2 general references.
- Open Questions, 7 claims: 6 well-attested, 1 general references.
- Wars & Conflicts, 5 claims: 3 well-attested, 1 holds, 1 general references.
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