Masinissa
Masinisa, Masnsen or Massan (Amazig: ⵎⵙⵏⵙⵏ MSNSN; Old Libyan: ⵎⴵⵏⴵⵏ)(c. 238 BC-c. 148 BC) was the first king of Numidia, with capital at Cirta, present-day Constantine (Algeria). He ruled over his own tribe, the Masilios, and that of the Massesilos, originally led by the pro-Carthaginian Sifax. He began as tribal chief of the Berbers, succeeding his father Gaia. An ally of Carthage, along with general Asdrúbal Gisco, he defeated the Numidian Sifax when he was only 17 years old (213 BC or 212 BC). He fought as an ally of Carthage in Hispania, directing his Numidian horsemen and finally leading a successful guerrilla campaign against the Romans. He later sided with Rome and remained in alliance with her until his death.
Biography
Return to Numidia
After returning to his kingdom, he fought several civil wars against the Sifax, Lacumazes, and Mazetulo rulers. Defeated by Sifax, he was pursued by one of his generals, Bucar, but raised a new army. In a new battle, Sifax's son, Vermina, decided the battle in favor of his father.
Exiled for a while, around 206 B.C. C. he began to cooperate with the Romans (apparently he was personally acquainted with Gaius Lelio, Scipio the African's cavalry commander), fighting alongside him in the battle of Zama (near the present-day city of Maktar, Tunisia). During the battle, while the Carthaginian infantry faced the Roman legions under the command of Scipio Africanus with relative success, Masinissa's cavalry had abandoned the battle in pursuit of the Carthaginian. After his return, the Romans managed to defeat the veterans and levies led by Hannibal.
King of Numidia
Rome backed their newly founded kingdom of Numidia, west of Carthage. This suited Latin interests, since their new neighbors would bring more problems to Cartago.
Throughout her life, Masinisa extended the kingdom in collaboration with Rome. He especially tried to bring Numidia closer to the Hellenistic kingdoms of the time: he promoted agriculture and trade among the semi-nomadic tribes, minted currency, ordered the construction of Greek-style buildings, and built diplomatic bridges with the cultures of the Mediterranean, even sending his son Mastanabal. to compete in the chariot races of the Panathenaic Games. In gratitude for these statues of Masinisa were erected on the island of Delos, one of them in charge of the city of Athens itself. He too adopted Carthaginian high culture, adopting identical institutions and establishing Punic as the language of the court.
He also provided aid to Rome in the form of grain and troops, especially cavalry, which Rome always needed. His horsemen would see action in the Third Macedonian War, the conflicts against the Ligurians in the same year, and the Romano-Syrian War, where he also provided elephants to the Roman side.
War against Carthage
Towards the end of his reign, in the decade of 150 a. C. Masinisa's expansionism made him come into conflict with Carthage, whose rulers he provoked to declare war on him and have an excuse to destroy them. Around this period, Apiano records the news that Iberian fighters attacked Numidia, surrounding one of Masinisa's sons and forcing the old king to come to his rescue. Some authors believe they have identified these forces as the Lusitanian army of Cauceno, which arrived in Africa in 153 BC. C., who could have secretly acted in favor of Carthage. Indeed, the Carthaginians would take the opportunity to plunder and provoke revolts in Masinisa's lands, only to be interrupted by the arrival of Roman emissaries who, naturally, favored their Numidian ally.
In any case, after the defeat of Caucenus and a reprisal by Masinisa, the Punics, trying to stick to the treaty signed after the Second Punic War that forbade them from declaring wars, filed a complaint with Rome. However, the terms proposed by the embassy were not acceptable to them, so, angered by the already manifest partiality of the Romans, and seeing the Numidians sack dozens of cities on the southern and western borders of Carthage, the Carthaginians finally broke the pact and declared the so-called Masinisa War. In 151 B.C. C. Masinisa defeated the Carthaginians in the battle of Oroscopa with the presence of Scipio Emiliano, who had arrived in Numidia to request reinforcements for Lucio Licinio Lucullo in the second Celtiberian war. With the breaking of the pact, a Roman army commanded by Manius Manilius and Lucius Calpurnius Piso arrived in Africa, beginning the third and last Punic War.
The return to Africa was due to the doubts that Rome harbored about Masinissa's true loyalties, fueled by the detail that one of the main architects of the defense of Carthage, Hasdrubal (not to be confused with his political opponent Hasdrubal the Boetarch), was then a grandson of the old king. Envisioning Numidian intentions to seize the Punic city for their own interests, it has even been proposed that Rome promoted the total destruction of Carthage so that Masinissa would not capture it and thus take over its Mediterranean trade network. Naturally, the Roman intervention offended Masinissa, who would see how Rome would come to snatch the fruits of her ambitions, but she maintained her alliance with them before her death the following year.
Death
Texts indicate that Masinissa lived to be 90 in enviable health, bearing her last child at 86, and apparently still able to ride and personally lead her armies to her death. He left behind him 44 sons with his harem, the main ones being Micipsa, Gulusa and Mastanabal, as well as the illegitimate Masugrada, and several daughters, among them the mother of the aforementioned Hasdrubal. His kingdom was divided among the first three.