DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.18096#0045
Carthaee and Rome
17
triumvirate, when Caesar, Pompey, and Crassus divided the
provinces among themselves, Africa fell to the lot of Pompey.
And when the final rupture terminated in the signal defeat of
Pompey in the plains of Pharsalus, Csesar crossed the Medi-
terranean and invaded Africa. His first attempt to land an
army at Leptis Parva (Lemta), B.C. 47, was successfully pre-
vented. But in the following year, when the opposing forces
met at Thapsus 1 (Dimas), the army of Pompey, commanded
by his father-in-law Metellus Scipio and Marcus Cato, acting
in conjunction with the Numidian forces under Juba I., son of
Hiempsal, was utterly routed. Scipio killed himself rather
than fall into the hands of Csesar. Cato fled to Utica, and on
the approach of Caesar's army to lay siege to the city, perished
by his own hand. Juba, attended by one companion, fled to
Zama, where he had left his household and all his treasures.
The gates of the city were closed against him by the terrified
inhabitants, so the poor king, deserted and broken-hearted, fled
to the woods and made away with himself. Numidia thus fell
into the hands of the Romans, and became a province of the
great Empire which was then being established by the first of
the Caesars.2 The battle of Thapsus changed the whole aspect
of African affairs, and enabled the conqueror to apportion the
country in the manner best adapted to serve the Roman cause.
For valuable assistance rendered during the campaign by Bogud,
king of Eastern Mauritania (afterwards designated Mauritania
Caesariensis), the eastern boundary of his kingdom was extended
as far as the river Ampsaga (Roumel) ; and for the services of
P. Sittius Nucerinus, whose valour was conspicuous on the
1 Shaw says that Thapsus was the largest city on the coast south of Carthage,
judging by the extent of the ruins. Portions of the old harbour can still be traced,
and the lines of the concrete retaining walls give indications of exceptionally massive
construction. Thapsus has had a long history, and was noted as a commercial port
in the earlier days of Carthaginian rule.
2 The early history of Numidia is somewhat obscure and involved in mystery.
Eusebius tells us that Hercules, after his conquest of the giant Antaeus, about fifty
years before the foundation of Utica and 287 years before that of Carthage, founded
the town of Capsa ; and that Iarbas, king of the nomadic Libyans or Numidians,
sought the hand of Dido at the time that Carthage became the capital of the State.
Sallust describes the Numidians as a mixture of Persians and Getulians. The word
Numidians is the same as Nomades, or wanderers, a term applied in ancient times to
pastoral nations without fixed abode. When the Romans took possession of Numidia
they made it into a province entitled Africa nova, to distinguish it from Carthaginian
territory, which was styled Africa vetus or Africa Provincia.
C
17
triumvirate, when Caesar, Pompey, and Crassus divided the
provinces among themselves, Africa fell to the lot of Pompey.
And when the final rupture terminated in the signal defeat of
Pompey in the plains of Pharsalus, Csesar crossed the Medi-
terranean and invaded Africa. His first attempt to land an
army at Leptis Parva (Lemta), B.C. 47, was successfully pre-
vented. But in the following year, when the opposing forces
met at Thapsus 1 (Dimas), the army of Pompey, commanded
by his father-in-law Metellus Scipio and Marcus Cato, acting
in conjunction with the Numidian forces under Juba I., son of
Hiempsal, was utterly routed. Scipio killed himself rather
than fall into the hands of Csesar. Cato fled to Utica, and on
the approach of Caesar's army to lay siege to the city, perished
by his own hand. Juba, attended by one companion, fled to
Zama, where he had left his household and all his treasures.
The gates of the city were closed against him by the terrified
inhabitants, so the poor king, deserted and broken-hearted, fled
to the woods and made away with himself. Numidia thus fell
into the hands of the Romans, and became a province of the
great Empire which was then being established by the first of
the Caesars.2 The battle of Thapsus changed the whole aspect
of African affairs, and enabled the conqueror to apportion the
country in the manner best adapted to serve the Roman cause.
For valuable assistance rendered during the campaign by Bogud,
king of Eastern Mauritania (afterwards designated Mauritania
Caesariensis), the eastern boundary of his kingdom was extended
as far as the river Ampsaga (Roumel) ; and for the services of
P. Sittius Nucerinus, whose valour was conspicuous on the
1 Shaw says that Thapsus was the largest city on the coast south of Carthage,
judging by the extent of the ruins. Portions of the old harbour can still be traced,
and the lines of the concrete retaining walls give indications of exceptionally massive
construction. Thapsus has had a long history, and was noted as a commercial port
in the earlier days of Carthaginian rule.
2 The early history of Numidia is somewhat obscure and involved in mystery.
Eusebius tells us that Hercules, after his conquest of the giant Antaeus, about fifty
years before the foundation of Utica and 287 years before that of Carthage, founded
the town of Capsa ; and that Iarbas, king of the nomadic Libyans or Numidians,
sought the hand of Dido at the time that Carthage became the capital of the State.
Sallust describes the Numidians as a mixture of Persians and Getulians. The word
Numidians is the same as Nomades, or wanderers, a term applied in ancient times to
pastoral nations without fixed abode. When the Romans took possession of Numidia
they made it into a province entitled Africa nova, to distinguish it from Carthaginian
territory, which was styled Africa vetus or Africa Provincia.
C