[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] In 388 Optatus was elected Bishop of Thamugadi, the most important Donatist bishopric in southern Numidia.
[10] It has traditionally been claimed that Gildo lead bands of Circumcellions to terrorise the countryside[11] though Frend failed to find record of religious coercion by the Donatists upon the neighboring Catholics.