Editing History of Algeria (section)

== Numidia ==
{{main|Numidia|North Africa during Antiquity}}Numidia ([[Berber languages|Berber]]: ''Inumiden''; 202–40 BC) was the ancient kingdom of the [[Numidians]] located in northwest Africa, initially comprising the territory that now makes up modern-day [[Algeria]], but later expanding across what is today known as [[Tunisia]], [[Libya]], and some parts of [[Morocco]]. The polity was originally divided between the [[Massylii]] in the east and the [[Masaesyli]] in the west. During the [[Second Punic War]] (218–201 BC), [[Masinissa]], king of the Massylii, defeated [[Syphax]] of the Masaesyli to unify Numidia into one kingdom. The kingdom began as a sovereign state and later alternated between being a [[Roman province]] and a Roman [[client state]].

Numidia, at its largest extent, was bordered by [[Mauretania]] to the west, at the [[Moulouya River]],<ref>{{Cite web |title=Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854), MULUCHA |url=https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.04.0064:entry=mulucha-geo |access-date=2023-02-05 |website=www.perseus.tufts.edu}}</ref> [[Africa (Roman province)|Africa]] to the east (also exercising control over Tripolitania), the [[Mediterranean Sea]] to the north, and the [[Sahara]] to the south. It was one of the first major states in the history of Algeria and the [[Berbers]].

=== War With Rome ===
By 112 BC, [[Jugurtha]] resumed his war with Adherbal. He incurred the wrath of Rome in the process by killing some Roman businessmen who were aiding Adherbal. After a brief war with Rome, Jugurtha surrendered and received a highly favourable peace treaty, which raised suspicions of bribery once more. The local Roman commander was summoned to Rome to face corruption charges brought by his political rival [[Gaius Memmius (proconsul of Macedonia)|Gaius Memmius]]. Jugurtha was also forced to come to Rome to testify against the Roman commander, where Jugurtha was completely discredited once his violent and ruthless past became widely known, and after he had been suspected of murdering a Numidian rival.

War broke out between Numidia and the [[Roman Republic]] and several legions were dispatched to North Africa under the command of the Consul [[Quintus Caecilius Metellus Numidicus]]. The war dragged out into a long and seemingly endless campaign as the Romans tried to defeat Jugurtha decisively. Frustrated at the apparent lack of action, Metellus' lieutenant [[Gaius Marius]] returned to Rome to seek election as Consul. Marius was elected, and then returned to Numidia to take control of the war. He sent his Quaestor [[Sulla]] to neighbouring Mauretania in order to eliminate their support for Jugurtha. With the help of [[Bocchus I]] of Mauretania, Sulla captured Jugurtha and brought the war to a conclusive end. Jugurtha was brought to Rome in chains and was placed in the [[Tullianum]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Telford |first=Lynda |url=https://openlibrary.org/books/OL29733672M/Sulla |title=Sulla: A Dictator Reconsidered |date=2014 |publisher=Pen & Sword Books Limited |isbn=978-1-4738-3450-7|ol=29733672M }}</ref>

Jugurtha was executed by the Romans in 104 BC, after being paraded through the streets in Gaius Marius' Triumph.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Connolly |first1=Peter |url=https://openlibrary.org/books/OL34723389M/Hutchinson_Dictionary_of_Ancient_and_Medieval_Warfare |title=Hutchinson Dictionary of Ancient and Medieval Warfare |last2=Gillingham |first2=John |last3=Lazenby |first3=John |date=2016 |publisher=Taylor & Francis Group|ol=34723389M }}</ref>

=== Independence ===
The Greek historians referred to these peoples as "Νομάδες" (i.e. Nomads), which by Latin interpretation became "Numidae" (but cf. also the correct use of ''Nomades'').<ref>{{Cite web |title=Charlton T. Lewis, Charles Short, A Latin Dictionary, Nŭmĭda |url=https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.04.0059:entry=Numida |access-date=2023-02-05 |website=www.perseus.tufts.edu}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Charlton T. Lewis, Charles Short, A Latin Dictionary, Nŏmăs |url=https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.04.0059:entry=Nomas |access-date=2023-02-05 |website=www.perseus.tufts.edu}}</ref> Historian [[Gabriel Camps]], however, disputes this claim, favoring instead an African origin for the term.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Camps |first=Gabriel |date=1979 |title=Les Numides et la civilisation punique |url=https://www.persee.fr/doc/antaf_0066-4871_1979_num_14_1_1016 |journal=Antiquités africaines |volume=14 |issue=1 |pages=43–53 |doi=10.3406/antaf.1979.1016}}</ref>

The name appears first in [[Polybius]] (second century BC) to indicate the peoples and territory west of [[Carthage]] including the entire north of Algeria as far as the river Mulucha ([[Muluya]]), about 160 kilometres (100&nbsp;mi) west of [[Oran]].<ref name="Numidia-1911">{{Cite EB1911|wstitle= Numidia | volume= 19 | pages = 828&ndash;869 |short= 1}}</ref>

The Numidians were composed of two great tribal groups: the [[Massylii]] in eastern Numidia, and the [[Masaesyli]] in the west. During the first part of the [[Second Punic War]], the eastern Massylii, under their king [[Gala (King of the Massylii)|Gala]], were allied with Carthage, while the western Masaesyli, under king [[Syphax]], were allied with Rome. The Kingdom of Masaesyli under Syphax extended from the Moulouya river to Oued Rhumel.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Laet |first1=Sigfried J. de |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WGUz01yBumEC&dq=masaesyli+kingdom&pg=PA289 |title=History of Humanity: From the seventh century B.C. to the seventh century A.D. |last2=Herrmann |first2=Joachim |year=1996 |publisher=UNESCO |isbn=978-92-3-102812-0 |language=en}}</ref>
[[File:Map of Numidia.jpg|thumb|left|Map of Numidia]]
[[File:GM Massinissa.png|thumbnail|upright|[[Masinissa]]]]
However, in 206 BC, the new king of the eastern Massylii, [[Masinissa]], allied himself with Rome, and Syphax of the Masaesyli switched his allegiance to the Carthaginian side. At the end of the war, the victorious Romans gave all of Numidia to Masinissa of the Massylii.<ref name="Numidia-1911" /> At the time of his death in 148 BC, Masinissa's territory extended from the Moulouya to the boundary of the Carthaginian territory, and also southeast as far as [[Cyrenaica]] to the gulf of [[Sirte]], so that Numidia entirely surrounded Carthage ([[Appian]], ''Punica'', 106) except towards the sea. Furthermore, after the capture of Syphax the king in modern day Morocco with his capital based in Tingis, Bokkar, had become a vassal of Massinissa.<ref>{{Cite book |last=indigènes |first=Morocco Direction des affaires |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nS1FAAAAYAAJ |title=Villes et tribus du Maroc: documents et renseignements |date=1921 |publisher=H. Champion |language=fr}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Chavrebière |first=Coissac de |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rmUcAAAAMAAJ |title=Histoire du Maroc |date=1931 |publisher=Payot |language=fr}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Ricard |first=Prosper |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3TYMAQAAIAAJ |title=Le Maroc |date=1925 |publisher=Hachette |language=fr}}</ref> Massinissa had also penetrated as far south beyond the Atlas to the [[Gaetuli]] and [[Fezzan]] was part of his domain.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Duruy |first=Victor |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XlxMAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA127 |title=Histoire des Romains depuis les temps les plus reculés jusqu'à la fin du règne des Antonins |date=1871 |publisher=Hachette |language=fr}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Fushaykah |first=Muḥammad Masʻūd |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yecDAQAAIAAJ |title=Storia della Libia dai tempi piu' [i.e. più] remoti ad oggi: compendio |date=1956 |publisher=Stabilimento poligrafico editoriale Maggi |language=it}}</ref>

In 179 B.C. Masinissa had received a golden crown from the inhabitants of [[Delos]] as he had offered them a shipload of grain. A statue of Masinissa was set up in Delos in honour of him as well as an inscription dedicated to him in Delos by a native from [[Rhodes]]. His sons too had statues of them erected on the island of Delos and the King of [[Bithynia]], Nicomedes, had also dedicated a statue to Masinissa.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Lipiński |first=Edward |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=SLSzNfdcqfoC&pg=PA169 |title=Itineraria Phoenicia |date=2004 |publisher=Peeters Publishers |isbn=978-90-429-1344-8 |language=en}}</ref>

After the death of the long-lived Masinissa around 148 BC, he was succeeded by his son [[Micipsa]]. When Micipsa died in 118 BC, he was succeeded jointly by his two sons [[Hiempsal I]] and [[Adherbal (king of Numidia)|Adherbal]] and Masinissa's illegitimate grandson, [[Jugurtha]], who was very popular among the Numidians. Hiempsal and Jugurtha quarrelled immediately after the death of Micipsa. Jugurtha had Hiempsal killed, which led to open war with Adherbal.<ref>{{Citation |title=Sallust |work=Wikipedia |language=en |url=https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Sallust&oldid=1135780134 |access-date=2023-02-05}}</ref>

[[Phoenicia]]n traders arrived on the North African coast around 900 BC and established [[Carthage]] (in present-day [[Tunisia]]) around 800 BC. During the classical period, Berber civilization was already at a stage in which agriculture, manufacturing, trade, and political organization supported several states. Trade links between Carthage and the Berbers in the interior grew, but territorial expansion also resulted in the enslavement or military recruitment of some Berbers and in the extraction of tribute from others.

The Carthaginian state declined because of successive defeats by the Romans in the [[Punic Wars]], and in 146 BC, the city of Carthage was destroyed. As Carthaginian power waned, the influence of Berber leaders in the hinterland grew.

By the 2nd century BC, several large but loosely administered Berber kingdoms had emerged. After that, king [[Masinissa]] managed to unify [[Numidia]] under his rule.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7oIJeNasSw8C&pg=PA109|title=Histoire de l'émigration kabyle en France au XXe siécle: réalités ... - Karina Slimani-Direche - Google Livres |isbn=9782738457899 |access-date=2012-12-25|last1=Slimani-Direche |first1=Karina |year=1997 |publisher=Harmattan }}</ref><ref name="ReferenceB">Les cultures du Maghreb De Maria Angels Roque, Paul Balta, Mohammed Arkoun</ref><ref>Dialogues d'histoire ancienne De Université de Besançon, Centre de recherches d'histoire ancienne</ref>