Numidia

 

(nūmĭd'ēə) , ancient country of NW Africa, very roughly the modern Algeria. It was part of the Carthaginian empire until Masinissa, ruler of E Numidia, allied himself (c.206 B.C.) with Rome in the Punic Wars. After the Roman victory over Carthage led to peace in 201 B.C., Masinissa was awarded rule of all Numidia. This began Numidia's most flourishing period, culturally and politically. Numidia's encroachments on reviving Carthage furnished Rome with a pretext for the Third Punic War (149–146 B.C.). Masinissa's successor was Micipsa (148–118 B.C.), one of whose heirs, Jugurtha, brought on a fatal war with Rome. Later, in the Roman civil war, King Juba I sided with Pompey, and Numidia lost (46 B.C.) all independence with Julius Caesar's victory. Juba II was favored by the Romans as a subject prince, and the region subsequently flourished for several centuries. Numidia was invaded by the Vandals in the 5th cent. A.D. and by the Arabs in the 8th cent. The main urban centers of ancient Numidia were Cirta (now Constantine) and Hippo Regius (now Annaba).

This article is about the Roman province. For the Pennsylvanian city, see Numidia, Pennsylvania.

Numidia (202 BC - 25 BC) was an ancient Berber kingdom in North Africa that later alternated between a Roman province and a Roman client state, and is no longer in existence today. It was located on the eastern border of modern day Algeria, bordered by the Roman province of Mauretania (western border of modern Algeria) to the west, the Roman province of Africa (modern day Tunisia) to the east, the Mediterranean Sea to the north, and the Sahara Desert to the south. Its people were the Numidians.

History

The name Numidia was first applied by Polybius and other historians during the 3rd century BC to indicate the territory west of Carthage, including the entire Maghreb as far as the river Mulucha (Muluya), about 100 miles west of Oran. The Numidians were conceived of as two great tribal groups: the Massyli in eastern Numidia, and the Mutigiti in the west.

During the first part of the Second Punic War, the eastern Massyli under their king Gaia were allied with Carthage, while the western Massaesyli under king Syphax were allied with Rome. However in 206 BC, the new king of the eastern Massyli Massinissa allied himself with Rome, and Syphax of the Massaesyli switched his allegiance to the Carthaginian side. At the end of the war the victorious Romans gave all of Numidia to Massinissa of the Massyli. At the time of his death in 148 BC, Massinissa's territory extended from Mauretania to the boundary of the Carthaginian territory, and also southeast as far as Cyrenaica, so that Numidia entirely surrounded Carthage (Appian, Punica, 106) except towards the sea.

After the death of Astrakanti (106 BC) as a Roman captive, western Numidia was added to the lands of Bocchus, king of Mauretania, while the remainder (excluding Cyrene and its locality) continued to be governed by native princes until the civil war between Caesar and Pompey. After Cato the Younger was defeated by Caesar, he committed suicide (46 BC) in Utica, and Numidia became briefly the province of Africa Nova until Augustus restored Juba II (son of Juba I) after the Battle of Actium.

Soon afterwards, in 25 BC, Juba was transferred to the throne of Mauretania, and Numidia was divided between Mauretania and the province of Africa Nova. Under Septimus Severus (193 AD), Numidia was separated from Africa Vetus, and governed by an imperial procurator; finally, under the new organization of the empire by Diocletian, Numidia became one of the seven provinces of the diocese of Africa, being known as Numidia Cirtensis.

The invasion of the Vandals in 428 AD began its slow decay, accompanied by desertification.

Major cities

Numidia was highly Romanized and was studded with numerous towns. The chief towns of Roman Numidia were: in the north, Cirta, the capital, with its port Rusicada; Hippo Regius (near Bona), well known as the see of St. Augustine. To the south in the interior military roads led to Theveste (Tebessa) and Lambaesis (Lambessa) with extensive Roman remains, connected by military roads with Cirta and Hippo respectively.

Lambaesis was the seat of the Legio III Augusta, and the most important strategic centre, as commanding the passes of the Mons Aurasius, a mountain block which separated Numidia from the Gaetulian tribes of the desert, and which was gradually occupied in its whole extent by the Romans under the Empire. Including these towns there were altogether twenty which are known to have received at one time or another the title and status of Roman colonies; and in the 5th century the Notitia Dignitatum enumerates no less than 123 sees whose bishops assembled at Carthage in 479.

See also

• List of Kings of Numidia
• Numidians

References

• This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.

External links

• A Numidian Coin from Deer Creek, Ohio
• A classicist's summary of the group which supposedly discovered this
• Numidia.startkabel.nl (Links in Dutch and English)

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