Agonistici, a sect of Donatist ascetics who inhabited the northern part of Africa in the 4th century. They were opposed to labor, and to marriage as well as to monasticism, which was then just beginning to gain ground. They were mostly rough, uneducated peasants, who begged among the inhabitants, and often destroyed the idols, regardless of the martyrdom which was frequently their reward. They eagerly sought a voluntary death by means of fire or water. Upon the invasion of the Vandals the sect was totally extinguished.