Kingdom of Numidia | |||||||||||||||
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202 BC–25 BC | |||||||||||||||
Numidian coins under Massinissa | |||||||||||||||
Capital | Cirta (today Constantine, Algeria) | ||||||||||||||
Official languages | Punic[a][2][3][4] | ||||||||||||||
Common languages | Numidian[b] Latin[c] Greek[d] | ||||||||||||||
Government | Monarchy | ||||||||||||||
King | |||||||||||||||
• 202–148 BC | Masinissa | ||||||||||||||
• 60–46 BC | Juba I of Numidia | ||||||||||||||
• 30–25 BC | Juba II of Numidia | ||||||||||||||
Historical era | Antiquity | ||||||||||||||
• Established | 202 BC | ||||||||||||||
• Annexed by the Roman Empire | 25 BC | ||||||||||||||
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Today part of |
History of Algeria |
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Numidia was the ancient kingdom of the Numidians in northwest Africa, initially comprising the territory that now makes up Algeria,[10] but later expanding across what is today known as Tunisia and Libya. 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 the first Berber state in present-day Algeria.[11] 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 the Moulouya River to the west,[12] Africa Proconsularis and Cyrenaica to the east, the Mediterranean Sea to the north, and the Sahara to the south.
Numidic kings and elites spoke and used Punic as the official language while peasants spoke Berber. The Carthaginian idiom was in use until the third century CE
Punic was employed as the official language of the Numidian kingdom, as is shown by monumental inscriptions and coin legends. Numidia even became something of a centre of Punic literary culture. In 146 BC the Romans presented to Micipsa the captured library of Carthage, and in the following century, as has been seen, a Numidian king (Hiempsal II) wrote a history of his country in Punic.
The Punic language and religion survived the cataclysm too. Many if not most Libyan communities used Punic for official purposes, as did the Numidian kingdom.
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