Iberia · 212 – 206
Carthage's horseman
For six years he served Carthage in Iberia. His light cavalry harried the Romans, and Livy gives him a part in the disaster of the Scipios in 211. He was still in the Punic camp at Ilipa.
Biography · Numidia
c. 238 – 148 BC
Masinissa
King of the Numidians — ally of Carthage, then of Rome
Educated in Carthage, he first fought for her in Iberia, went over to Rome in 206, decided the day at Zama, then ruled for over half a century a united, settled Numidia facing the Mediterranean. Carthage never had a more formidable neighbour.
~90
years old at his death in 148: he still mounted his horse unaided (Polybius)
54
years on the throne of Numidia, from 202 to 148
4,000
Numidian horsemen at his side at Zama in 202 (Livy, XXX, 29)
44
sons, according to an ancient tradition: the figure varies between authors
A Massylian prince
Raised in Carthage
Masinissa was the son of Gaia, king of the Massyli, the eastern Numidian people whose land bordered Carthage's. To the west ruled Syphax, king of the Masaesyli. According to Appian, the young prince was educated in Carthage, like other sons of the Numidian nobility: he knew its language, its customs and its great families.
This Punic education was no mere detail. Throughout his life Masinissa ruled like a Mediterranean monarch, with Punic as the language of administration and royal inscriptions — while turning against Carthage what he had learned there.
People: MassyliFather: GaiaCapital: Cirta
His name
MSNSN
This is how the Punic inscriptions of Dougga spell his name. Greeks and Romans made it Massanasses, Masinissa or Massinissa. Its meaning, sometimes linked to Berber, remains a hypothesis.
Timeline
A life of ninety years
c. 238Birth — Son of the Massylian king Gaia. Livy (Periochae, 50) says he was over ninety when he died.
212 – 206In Carthage's service — At the head of the Numidian cavalry, he fought in Iberia alongside the Carthaginian generals. In 211 his horsemen helped defeat and kill the two Scipios, Publius and Gnaeus (Livy, XXV, 34).
206Ilipa, then the switch — After the Carthaginian defeat at Ilipa, he met the Roman Silanus in secret, then Scipio, who had sent back his nephew Massiva, captured in 209, without ransom (Livy, XXVII, 19; XXVIII, 35).
c. 206 – 205A kingdom lost — Gaia died; the succession was torn between his brother Oezalces and his nephews. Masinissa regained power, but Syphax, bound to Carthage by his marriage to Sophonisba, drove him out. Hunted, he survived in the mountains with a handful of horsemen (Livy, XXIX, 29–33).
204With Scipio in Africa — He joined the Roman army that had landed near Utica.
203Cirta and Sophonisba — Victory at the Great Plains; Syphax was captured and Cirta surrendered. Masinissa married Sophonisba, then, ordered by Scipio to hand her over, sent her poison. Scipio hailed him as king.
202Zama — He commanded the Roman right wing with some 6,000 infantry and 4,000 cavalry. His horsemen, returning on Hannibal's rear, finished the battle.
201Recognised king — The peace treaty granted him his kingdom and the lands "of his ancestors", without fixing their limits.
201 – 148The reign — Master of the Massyli and most of Syphax's kingdom, he united Numidia from Cirta, developed farming and towns, and nibbled away at Carthage's territory.
150War with Carthage — Pushed to the limit, Carthage took up arms against him; its army was surrounded and destroyed. Rome found in this the pretext for the Third Punic War.
148Death — He died early in the siege of Carthage. At his request, Scipio Aemilianus settled the succession among his three legitimate sons.
Between Carthage and Rome
Three moments, three alliances: Masinissa's choice of side always followed the interests of his kingdom.
Numidia · 206 – 203
Sophonisba →The rivalry with Syphax
Carthage backed the more powerful Syphax and sealed the alliance with the marriage of Sophonisba, daughter of Hasdrubal son of Gisco. Sidelined, Masinissa had no card left but Rome. The Sophonisba episode of 203 shows how far he depended on Scipio.
Africa · 202
Hannibal →Zama
Against Hannibal, the Numidian cavalry, usually Carthage's weapon, fought this time for Rome. Masinissa and Laelius scattered the enemy horse, then came back to strike the Punic infantry from behind.
Building a kingdom
Over fifty years of rule: what the sources remember of Masinissa's Numidia.
Cirta
A royal capital
Once Syphax's stronghold, Cirta became the centre of the united kingdom. Greek and Italian traders settled there; the city long kept a Punic culture.
Farming
From herders to farmers
Polybius credits him with showing that Numidia, thought barren, could grow every crop; he is said to have given each of his sons large estates. Historians qualify this: Numidian farming predates him, but he encouraged it.
Coinage
A royal coinage
Bronzes with a bearded, laureate head on the obverse and a horse on the reverse, bearing Punic letters, are attributed to Masinissa or his successors. The precise attribution of the issues is still debated.
Hellenisation
A Mediterranean king
He sent grain to Greece; statues were dedicated to him on Delos. One of his sons, Mastanabal, won a chariot race at the Panathenaic Games in Athens. The court spoke Punic and looked towards the Hellenistic world.
« His greatest and most admirable achievement was this: whereas all Numidia had until then been thought barren and unable to produce cultivated crops, he was the first and only one to show that it could produce them all, as well as any other land. »
Facing Carthage · 201 – 150
Masinissa and the fall of Carthage →The neighbour who ate into Carthage
The treaty of 201 forbade Carthage any war without Rome's consent and let Masinissa claim the lands "of his ancestors". For half a century he made the most of it: the Emporia of the Lesser Syrtis, then the Thugga region and the Great Plains came under his control, and Rome, called to arbitrate, almost always found in his favour.
This long pressure, down to the war of 150 that gave Rome its pretext, is told in detail on the page devoted to the fall of Carthage.
In brief
193First encroachments on the Emporia (Livy).
162 – 161Rome rules for him over the Emporia (Polybius).
153 – 152The Great Plains, the Thugga region (Appian).
150Carthage takes up arms; its army is wiped out.
Death and tombs
Where does Masinissa lie? No tomb can be attributed to him with certainty.
Succession · 148
A kingdom shared three ways
Masinissa died in 148, while the legions were besieging Carthage. He had many children — Livy reports that he fathered one more after the age of eighty-six (Periochae, 50). Scipio Aemilianus, entrusted with the settlement, divided power among his three legitimate sons: Micipsa received Cirta and the government, Gulussa war, Mastanabal justice (Appian, Libyca, 106).
The cult of the dead king is attested: at Dougga, a bilingual Libyan and Punic inscription records the building, in 139, of a sanctuary dedicated to Masinissa, in the tenth year of Micipsa's reign.
Disputed attribution
Whose tomb?
The Dougga mausoleum bore a bilingual inscription, now in the British Museum, naming one Ateban, son of Iepmatath: it is most often seen as the tomb of a Numidian prince, and the idea of a cenotaph of Masinissa is unproven. Near Cirta, the Soumâa of El Khroub has been proposed as the tomb of Masinissa or Micipsa, again without decisive proof. The older Medracen shows that Numidian kings were already building great tombs before him.
Sources
Where our knowledge comes from
Livy, books XXV–XXXThe Iberian years, the succession war, exile, Sophonisba and Zama; the summary of book L (Periochae) records his death.
Polybius, HistoriesAn eyewitness: he met the king. A portrait of his vigour and his farming work (XXXVI, 16); disputes with Carthage (XXXI, 21).
Appian, LibycaHis education in Carthage, the encroachments of the 150s, the succession settled by Scipio Aemilianus (106).
Inscriptions of DouggaLibyan and Punic texts of the 2nd century: the name MSNSN, the royal genealogy, the sanctuary of 139.
Sallust, The Jugurthine WarMasinissa's memory among his descendants, seen by a Roman of the 1st century.
Legacy
The first great king of North Africa
Masinissa left a united, powerful Numidian state allied to Rome — too powerful, perhaps, for Rome's liking. His descendants and his memory have come down the centuries.
Micipsa
Sole king after his brothers died, he ruled from Cirta until 118 and carried on his father's work.
Jugurtha
Masinissa's grandson through Mastanabal, he defied Rome from 112 to 105: Sallust tells the story.
Algeria
A founding figure claimed by Algerian national memory: statues, and names of streets, towns and institutions.
Amazigh memory
For the Amazigh movement, he embodies an autonomous North African power older than Rome.
Tunisia
Dougga, Mactaris and north-western Tunisia were part of his kingdom; his figure also belongs to Tunisian history.
Further readingSources for this page
7 references
Ancient sources
- Livy, History of RomeXXV, 34; XXVII, 19; XXVIII, 35; XXIX, 29–33; XXX, 29 — Iberia, the succession war, exile, Sophonisba, Zama; the encroachments of 193
- Livy, PeriochaeL — summary of book 50: the king's age and death
- Polybius, HistoriesXXXI, 21; XXXVI, 16 — eyewitness: the king's vigour, his farming work, disputes with Carthage
- Appian, Libyca106 — education in Carthage, the encroachments of the 150s, the succession settled by Scipio Aemilianus
- Sallust, The Jugurthine War — Masinissa's descendants, down to Jugurtha
- Libyan and Punic inscriptions of Dougga2nd c. BC — the name MSNSN, the royal genealogy, the sanctuary of 139
Modern scholarship
- Stéphane Gsell, Histoire ancienne de l'Afrique du Nord, Hachette, 1913–1928 — standard work on the Numidian kingdoms (not named in the page)
