Who was Massinissa?

Massinissa (c.241-148): king of the Massylians in Numidia (202-148).

Massinissa was the son of king Gala (or Gaïa) of the Massylians, and was educated in Carthage - a kind way to say that he was in fact a hostage. In 212, when he was almost thirty years old, he served as commander of a Numidian cavalry unit in the Carthaginian army in Iberia. These were the years of the Second Punic War (218-202), in which Hannibal was fighting in Italy against the Romans. At the same time, the Romans tried to conquer Hispania, which was defended by Hannibal’s brother Hasdrubal. In 211, he defeated and killed the two Roman commanders Publius and Gnaeus Cornelius Scipio, near Castulo.

When Massinissa was born, Numidia (more or less the north of modern Algeria) was a country on the edge of the urbanized world of the Mediterranean. Although many people were living in large villages that would eventually develop into cities, another part of the Numidian population was still roaming over the plains. Our word “nomad” is derived from “Numidia”.