Map of the Roman Empire -
Numidia
Numidia
G-7 on the Map
Ancient Numidia - Numidia, part of Algiers. Famous for its cavalry. Under K. Masinissa, 2d cent. B. C, in close alliance with Rome. His grandson, Jugurtha,
vanquished by Marius, B. C. 106. Made a Roman province by Caligula. - Cirta. —
Massylii. - Ancient Geography
Numidia
Roman Province. After the death of Jugurtha, 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. Under the new organization of the empire by
Diocletian, Numidia was divided in two provinces: the north became Numidia
Cirtensis, with capital at Cirta, while the south, which included the Aurčs
Mountains and was threatened by raids, became Numidia Militiana, "Military
Numidia", with capital at the legionary base of Lambaesis. Subsequently however,
Emperor Constantine the Great reunited the two provinces in a single one,
administered from Cirta, which was now renamed Constantina (modern Constantine,
Algeria) in his honour. Its governor was raised to the rank of consularis in
320, and the province remained one of the seven provinces of the diocese of
Africa until the invasion of the Vandals in 428 AD, which began its slow decay,
accompanied by desertification. The province remained under Vandal rule, but was
effectively limited to the coastal areas by Berber raids. It was restored to
Roman rule after the Vandalic War, when it became part of the new praetorian
prefecture of Africa. - Wikipedia
Numidia A country of Africa, bounded on the east by Africa Propria, on
the north by the Mediterranean, on the south by Gaetulia, and on the west by
Mauretania. The Roman province of Numidia was, however, of somewhat smaller
extent. Intersected by a chain of the Lesser Atlas, and watered by the streams
running down from it, it abounded in fine pastures, which were early taken
possession of by wandering tribes of Asiatic origin, who from their occupation
as herdsmen were called by the Greeks, here as elsewhere, and this name was
perpetuated in that of the country. A sufficient account of these tribes, and of
their connection with their neighbours in the west, is given under Mauretania.
The fertility of the country, inviting to agriculture, gradually gave a somewhat
more settled character to the people; and, at their first appearance in Roman
history, we find their two great tribes, the Massylians and the Massaesylians,
forming two monarchies, which were united into one under Masinissa, B.C. 201.
(See Masinissa.) On Masinissa's death in 148, his kingdom was divided, by his
dying directions, between his three sons, Micipsa, Mastanabal, and Gulussa; but
it was soon reunited under Micipsa, in consequence of the death of both his
brothers. His death, in 118, was speedily followed by the usurpation of Iugurtha,
an account of which and of the ensuing war with the Romans is given under
Iugurtha. On the defeat of Iugurtha in 106, the country became virtually subject
to the Romans, but they permitted the family of Masinissa to govern it, with the
royal title (see Hiempsal; Iuba), until B.C. 46, when Iuba, who had espoused the
cause of Pompey in the Civil Wars, was defeated and dethroned by Iulius Caesar,
and Numidia was made a Roman province. It seems to have been about the same time
or a little later, under Augustus, that the western part of the country was
taken from Numidia, and added to Mauretania, as far east as Saldac. In B.C. 30
Augustus restored Iuba II. to his father's kingdom of Numidia; but in B.C. 25 he
exchanged it for Mauretania, and Numidia—that is, the country between Saldae on
the west and the Tusca on the east—became a Roman province. It was again
diminished by near a half under Claudius; and henceforth, until the Arab
conquest, the senatorial province of Numidia denoted the district between the
river Ampsaga on the west and the Tusca on the east; its capital was Cirta (Constantin).
The country, in its later restricted limits, is often distinguished by the name
of New Numidia or Numidia Proper. The Numidians are known to military history as
furnishing the best light cavalry in the Carthaginian and Roman armies.
- Harry Thurston Peck. Harpers Dictionary
of Classical Antiquities. New York. Harper and Brothers. 1898.
Numidia NUMI´DIA
NUMI´DIA the central tract of country on the N. coast of Africa, which forms the
largest portion of the country now occupied by the French, and called Algeria or
Algérie.
I. Name, Limits, and Inhabitants.
The continuous system of highlands, which extends along the coast of the
Mediterranean, was in the earliest period occupied by a race of people
consisting of many tribes, of whom, the Berbers of the Algerine territories, or
the Kabyles or Quabaîly, as they are called by the inhabitants of the cities,
are the representatives. These peoples, speaking a language which was once
spoken from the Fortunate Islands in the W. to the Cataracts of the Nile, and
which still explains many names in ancient African topography, and embracing
tribes of quite different characters, whites as well as blacks (though not
negroes), were called by the Romans NUMIDAE, not a proper name, but a common
denomination from the Greek form ??µ?de?. (Strab. ii. p.131, xvii. pp. 833,
837.) Afterwards NUMIDA and NUMIDIA (???µ?d?a and ? ??µad?a or ??µad???, Ptol.
4.3; Pomp. Mela, 1.6; Plin. Nat. 5.2, 6.39) became the name of the nation and
the country. Sometimes they were called MAURUSII NUMIDAE (?a????s??? ??µ?de?,
Appian, App. BC 2.44), while the later writers always speak of them under the
general name of MAUSI (Ammian. 29.5; Procop. B. V. 2.4.) The most powerful among
these tribes were the MASSYLI (?add?????, Plb. 3.44; Strab. ii. p.131, xvii. p.
829; Dionys. A. R. 187; ?ass??e??, Plb. 7.19; Massyli, Sil. Ital. 16.170;
Massyla gens, Liv. 24.48), whose territories extended from the river Ampsaga to
Tretum Prom. (Seba Rűs); and the MASSAESYLI (?assa?s?????, [2.454] Plb. 3.33;
Strab. ii. p.131, xvii. pp. 827, 829, 833; Dionys. A. R. 187; Sal. Jug. 92; Plin.
Nat. 5.1; Masaesyli, Liv. 28.17), occupying the country to the W. as far as the
river Mulucha. Nomad life, under all the differences of time and space,
presents: one uniform type, the “armentarius Afer” of Virgil (Georg. 3.344), and
Sallust (Sal. Jug. 18), who, as governor of Numidia, had opportunity for
observation, may be recognised in the modern Kabyle. These live in huts made of
the branches of trees :and covered with clay, which resemble the “magalia” of
the old Numidians, spread in little groups over the side of the mountains, and
store away their grain in holes in the ground. Numidia, a nation of horsemen,
supplied the Carthaginians with the wild cavalry, who, without saddle and
bridle, scoured the country, as if horse and rider were one creature. Masinissa,
who, till the age of ninety, could spring upon his horse's back (Appian, App.
Pun. 107), represents the true Numidian; faithless, merciless, unscrupulous, he
is a man of barbaric race, acquiring the tastes and the polish of civilisation
without any deeper reformation. Agriculture and the arts of life were introduced
under Masinissa, and still more by Micipsa. After the fall of Cartilage, the
Romans presented the Numidian kings with its library; but Punic influence must
have been very slight. Procopius (B. V. 2.10), indeed says, of the inhabitants
of both Mauretania and Numidia, that they used the Phoenician language in his
time; but it is extremely improbable that they ever used Punic, nor can it be
supposed that Procopius possessed the information requisite for ascertaining the
fact. They used a language among themselves, unintelligible to the Greeks and
Romans, who imagined it to be Punic, while there can be little doubt that it was
the idiom which they spoke before the arrival of :the Phoenician colonists, and
which continued to be their vernacular dialect long after the Carthaginians and
Romans had ceased to be known among them, even by name. Latin would be the
language of the cities, and must have been very generally intelligible, as the
Christian teachers never appear to have used or to have thought it necessary to
learn any other language.
II. Physical Geography.
Recent investigation has shown that the distinction between what was called the
“Greater and the Lesser Atlas” must :be abandoned. There is only one Atlas,
formerly called in the native language “Dyris ;” and this name is to be applied
to the foldings, or succession of crests, which form the division between the
waters flowing to the Mediterranean and those which flow towards the Sahara
lowland. The E. prolongation of the snow-covered W. summits of the Atlas, has a
direction or strike from E. to .W. Numerous projections from this chain run :out
into the sea, and form abrupt promontories: the first of these in a direction
from E. to W., was HIPPI PROM (?pp?? ???a, Ptol. 4.3.5: C. de Garde, or
Râs-el-Hamrah); then STOBORRUM (St?ß?????, Ptol. l.c.: C. de Fer, Râs Hádîd);
RUSICADA; COLLOPS MAGNUS; at TRES PROM., or the cove at Seba Rűs, the SINUS
NUMIDICUS (???µ?d???? ???p??, Ptol. 4.3.3), into which the rivers Ampsaga, Audus,
and Sisar discharged themselves, with the headland IGILGILI (Dschidscheli) and
SALDAE (C. Carbon, Bougie, Bedschâjah); after passing RUSUCURUM and C. Matifi or
Râs Temendfűz, the bold shores of the Bay of Algiers, to which the ancients gave
no name, succeed. The chief rivers were the TUSCA the boundary between Numidia
and the Roman province, the RUBRICATUS or UBUS, and the AMPSAGA The S.
boundaries, towards the widely extended low region of the Sahara, are still but
little known. From the researches of MM. Fournel, Renou, and Carette, it appears
that the Sahara is composed of several detached basins, and that the number and
the population of the fertile oases is much greater than had been imagined. Of
larger wild animals, only gazelles, wild asses, and ostriches are to be met
with. The lion of the Numidian desert exists only in imagination, as that animal
naturally seeks spots where food and water can be found The camel, the “ship of
the desert,” was unknown to the ancient horsemen of Numidia; its diffusion must
be attributed to the period of the Ptolemies, who employed it for commercial
operations in the valley of the Nile, whence it spread through Cyrene to the
whole of the NW. of Africa, where it was first brought into military use in the
train of armies in the times of the Caesars. The later introduction of this
carrier of the desert, so important to the nomadic life of nations, and the
patriarchal stage of development, belongs to the Mohammedan epoch of the
conquering Arabs. The maritime tract of this country displays nearly the same
vegetable forms as the coasts of Andalusia and Valencia. The olive, the
orange-tree, the arborescent ricinus, the Chamaerops hunilis, and the date-tree
flourish on both sides of the Mediterranean; and when the warmer sun of N.
Africa produces different species, they are generally belonging to the same
families as the European tribes. The marble of Numidia, “giallo antico,” golden
yellow, with reddish veins, was the most highly prized at Rome for its colour. (Plin.
Nat. 35.1, 36.8.) The pavement of the Comitium at Rome consisted of slabs of
this beautiful material. (Niebuhr, Lect. on Anc. Geog. vol. ii. p. 80.)
III. History and Political Geography.
The Romans became acquainted with these tribes in the First Punic War, when they
served as the Carthaginian cavalry. After the great victory of Regulus, the
Numidians threw off the yoke of Carthage. (Plb. 1.31; Diod. Fragm. Vat. 23.4.)
The wild array of their horsemen was the most formidable arm of Hannibal, and
with the half-caste Mutines at their head, carried destruction throughout
Sicily. In the great struggle of the Second Punic War the Romans made use of
these faithless barbarians with great success. The services of Masinissa prince
of the E. Numidians, were not unrewarded, and, at the end of the war, he
obtained the dominions of Syphax, his rival, and prince of the W. tribes, the
Massaesyli, and a great part of the Carthaginian territory; so that his kingdom
extended from the Mulucha on the W., to the Cyrenaica on the E., completely
surrounding the small strip allowed to Carthage on the coast. (Appian, App. Pun.
106). When Masinissa died he left his kingdom to his three sons, Gulussa,
Micipsa, and Mastanabal. Gulussa and Mastanabal died; the latter left no
legitimate children, but only Jugurtha and Gauda, sons by a concubine; and thus
the vast dominions of Numidia fell into the hands of Micipsa, the Philhellene.
He had two sons, Adherbal and Hiempsal, with whom he associated Jugurtha in the
throne. The latter, spurning a divided empire, murdered Hiempsal, and compelled
Adherbal to fly to Rome, where he appealed to the senate against the usurpation
of his cousin. The [2.455] senators, many of whom were bribed by Jugurtha, sent
commissioners, who divided the kingdom in such a manner that Jugurtha obtained
the most warlike and most productive portion of it; New quarrels broke out
between the rival princes, when Jugurtha besieged Adherbal in Cirta, and, after
compelling him to surrender, put him to a cruel death. War was declared against
Jugurtha by Rome, which, after being carried on with varying success, was
finished by his capture and death in B.C. 106. The kingdom was given to Hiempsal
II., who was. succeeded by his son Juba I., who in the civil wars allied himself
to the Pompeians. On the death of Juba I., B.C. 46, Numidia was made a Roman
province by Julius Caesar, who put it in the hands of Sallust, the historian.
A.D. 39, Caligula changed the government of the province, giving apparently,
co-ordinate powers to the proconsul and the legatus. [See the article AFRICA
Vol. I. p. 70, where the arrangements are fully described.] The “legatus Aug.
pr.pr. Numidiae” (Orelli, Inscr. 3672) resided at Cirta, the capital of the old
Numidian kings, which, since the time of Augustus, had acquired the “jus
colonial.” Besides Cirta, there were many other “coloniae,” of which the
following names are known :--SICCA; THAMUCADIS; APHRODISIUM; CALCUA; TABRACA;
TIBIGA; TYRIDROMUM; TUBURNICA; THEVESTB ; MEDAUTJA; AMMEDERA; SIMITTU; RUSICADE;
HIPPO REGIUS; MILEUM; LAMBAESA; THELEPTE LARES. BULLA REGIA was a “liberum
oppidum.” The number of towns must have been considerable, as,, according to the
“Notitia,” Numidia had in the fifth century 123 episcopal sees. (Marquardt, in
Bekker's Handbuch der Röm. Alt. pt. iii. p. 229.) During the Roman occupation of
the country, that people, according to their usual plan, drove several roads
through it. Numerous remains of Roman posts and stations, which were of two
kinds, those which secured the roads, and others which guarded the estates at
some distance from them, are still remaining (London Geog. Journ. vol. viii. p.
53); and such was their excellent arrangement that, at first, one legion, “IIIa
Aug.,” to which afterwards a second was added, “Macriana liberatrix” (Tac. Hist.
1.11), served to keep the African provinces secure from the incursions of the
Moorish tribes. The long peace which Africa enjoyed, and the flourishing corn
trade it carried on, had converted the wild Numidian tribes into peaceful
peasants, and had opened a great field for Christian exertion. In the fourth
century, Numidia was the chosen seat of the Donatist schism. The ravages of the
Circumcellions contributed to that destruction, which was finally consummated by
the Vandal invasion. Justinian sent forth his troops, with a view of putting
down the Arians, more than of winning new provinces to the empire The work was a
complete one; the Vandals were exterminated. Along with-the temporary rule of
Constantinople, the native population of Africa reappeared. The most signal
victory of the cross, as it appeared to that generation, prepared the way for
the victory of the crescent a century afterwards.
- Dictionary of Greek and Roman
Geography (1854) William Smith, LLD, Ed.