Kingdom of Numidia

Numidia was the Berber kingdom of North Africa of the Hellenistic age, the first unified Berber state, ruling from 202 BC to 46 BC between Mauretania and Carthage. It began doubled: the Massylii in the east from Cirta and the Masaesyli in the west from Siga, until Masinissa of the east beat Syphax of the west in the Second Punic War and joined them into one. Polybius had already praised Numidian strength in the First Punic War, and under Masinissa and his son Micipsa the kingdom reached its apogee, settling farmers on the land between the Moulouya and Cyrenaica's edge. Gulussa avenged an ambush by invading Carthaginian lands in 151 and broke their relief army in 150, giving Cato his excuse, and in 146 Scipio obliterated Carthage while Numidia watched. Its horsemen were antiquity's finest, winning Hannibal's early battles, and its kings bargained with Rome to the end in 46 BC.