DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.18096#0030
ginians had held for 400 years, shared the same fate,
was declared, or rather a respite was agreed upon by the tw|:
rivals, utterly wearied and worn out by continuous warfare cp
twenty years, preparatory only to a trial of strength on a morjf
extended scale. The twenty-three years' interval of watchfu
unrest which preceded the outbreak of the second Punic wa:
was among the most eventful in the whole history of the
struggle. It is this period, prior to the renewal of hostilities
when the fate of Carthage and her people was to be decidec
which is peculiarly attractive, partly on account of the event
that preceded the fall of a great nation, and partly from the
dramatic career of the chief native rulers of Africa.
In order to form an idea of the vast extent and limits o:
Africa of the ancient world, it is necessary to glance at a map oj
the southern shores of the Mediterranean, to note how the
country was then divided, and to sketch, as briefly as possible,
the history of the tribes who contributed by their endless
rivalries to hasten the Roman occupation of the entire region.
Commencing westward of Cyrene1 (a Greek colony founded
about B.C. 630, and though afterwards part of the Roman Empire
yet never recognised as part of North Africa) we come to Africa
proper, the little corner afterwards known as Africa Provincia,
of which the capital was Carthage.2 Westward of this was the
country of a people whom Greeks and Romans were accustomed
to call Nomades or Numidians, divided between the Massylians
on the east and the Massaesylians on the west. Beyond was
the land of the Mauri, stretching round the shores of the
Atlantic. Now all this vast region, from Cyrene to the Atlantic,
with a seaboard of not less than 2,000 miles, had been for many
centuries under the control of Carthage, furnishing large bodies
of troops in time of war and contributing to the preservation
of the kingdom of their enterprising masters.
1 Cyrene was founded by Greeks from the island of Thera, one of the Sporades
group in the ,-Egean Sea, now called Santorin. It became the capital of the region
known as Pentapolis, whose five cities were Cyrene, Apollonia, Ptolemais, Arsinoe,
and Berenice.
2 Sallust divides North Africa into four regions : (i) Cyrenaica and the country of
the Syrtes, the modern Barca : Tripoli, with the Fezzan in the interior ; (2) the
territory of Carthage, now known as Tunisia ; (3) Numidia, now corresponding to
Algeria ; and (4) Mauritania, the modern Morocco. (Vide Vivien de Saint-Martin,
Nord de PAfrique dans PantiquitL)
was declared, or rather a respite was agreed upon by the tw|:
rivals, utterly wearied and worn out by continuous warfare cp
twenty years, preparatory only to a trial of strength on a morjf
extended scale. The twenty-three years' interval of watchfu
unrest which preceded the outbreak of the second Punic wa:
was among the most eventful in the whole history of the
struggle. It is this period, prior to the renewal of hostilities
when the fate of Carthage and her people was to be decidec
which is peculiarly attractive, partly on account of the event
that preceded the fall of a great nation, and partly from the
dramatic career of the chief native rulers of Africa.
In order to form an idea of the vast extent and limits o:
Africa of the ancient world, it is necessary to glance at a map oj
the southern shores of the Mediterranean, to note how the
country was then divided, and to sketch, as briefly as possible,
the history of the tribes who contributed by their endless
rivalries to hasten the Roman occupation of the entire region.
Commencing westward of Cyrene1 (a Greek colony founded
about B.C. 630, and though afterwards part of the Roman Empire
yet never recognised as part of North Africa) we come to Africa
proper, the little corner afterwards known as Africa Provincia,
of which the capital was Carthage.2 Westward of this was the
country of a people whom Greeks and Romans were accustomed
to call Nomades or Numidians, divided between the Massylians
on the east and the Massaesylians on the west. Beyond was
the land of the Mauri, stretching round the shores of the
Atlantic. Now all this vast region, from Cyrene to the Atlantic,
with a seaboard of not less than 2,000 miles, had been for many
centuries under the control of Carthage, furnishing large bodies
of troops in time of war and contributing to the preservation
of the kingdom of their enterprising masters.
1 Cyrene was founded by Greeks from the island of Thera, one of the Sporades
group in the ,-Egean Sea, now called Santorin. It became the capital of the region
known as Pentapolis, whose five cities were Cyrene, Apollonia, Ptolemais, Arsinoe,
and Berenice.
2 Sallust divides North Africa into four regions : (i) Cyrenaica and the country of
the Syrtes, the modern Barca : Tripoli, with the Fezzan in the interior ; (2) the
territory of Carthage, now known as Tunisia ; (3) Numidia, now corresponding to
Algeria ; and (4) Mauritania, the modern Morocco. (Vide Vivien de Saint-Martin,
Nord de PAfrique dans PantiquitL)