Cirta , also known by various other names in antiquity , was the ancient Berber , Punic and Roman settlement which later became Constantine , Algeria .
96-573: Cirta was the capital city of the Berber kingdom of Numidia ; its strategically important port city was Russicada . Although Numidia was a key ally of the ancient Roman Republic during the Punic Wars (264–146 BC), Cirta was subject to Roman invasions during the 2nd and 1st centuries BC. Eventually it fell under Roman dominion during the time of Julius Caesar . Cirta was then repopulated with Roman colonists by Caesar and Augustus and
192-778: A cognate in the Tuareg "Amajegh", meaning noble. "Mazigh" was used as a tribal surname in Roman Mauretania Caesariensis . Abraham Isaac Laredo proposes that the term Amazigh could be derived from "Mezeg", which is the name of Dedan of Sheba in the Targum . Ibn Khaldun says the Berbers were descendants of Barbar, the son of Tamalla, son of Mazigh, son of Canaan , son of Ham , son of Noah . The Numidian , Mauri , and Libu populations of antiquity are typically understood to refer to approximately
288-528: A hard, breathy /tʰ/ sound) is probably not the Punic word meaning "town", which was written with a Q (i.e., qoph ) rather than a K ( kaph ). Instead, it is likely a Punic transcription of an existing Berber placename. This was later Latinized as Cirta. Under Julius Caesar , the Sittian settlement was known as Respublica IIII Coloniarum Cirtensium; Pliny also knew it as Cirta Sittianorum ("Cirta of
384-569: A campaign of Scipio Aemilianus in a poetic parallel to Masinissa's alliance with Scipio Africanus as an attempt to mitigate his influence. Unfortunately for Micipsa, this only served Jugurtha, who used his time in Spain to make several influential Roman contacts. Under Scipio Aemilianus at the siege of Numantia (134–133 BC), serving alongside Gaius Marius , Jugurtha learned of Romans' weakness for bribes and that powerful friends in Rome can go
480-583: A civil war broke out between the king's natural son Adherbal and his adoptive son Jugurtha . Adherbal appealed for Roman help and a senatorial commission brokered a seemingly successful division of the kingdom between the two heirs. Jugurtha followed this mediation, however, by besieging Cirta and killing both Adherbal and the Romans who defended him. Rome then prosecuted the Jugurthine War against his reunited Numidian state to assert their hegemony over
576-677: A client state of the Roman empire in 33 BC, after the death of king Bocchus II , then a full Roman province in AD 40, after the death of its last king, Ptolemy of Mauretania , a member of the Ptolemaic dynasty . According to historians of the Middle Ages, the Berbers were divided into two branches, Butr and Baranis (known also as Botr and Barnès), descended from Mazigh ancestors, who were themselves divided into tribes and subtribes. Each region of
672-567: A collective Amazigh ethnic identity and to militate for greater linguistic rights and cultural recognition. The indigenous populations of the Maghreb region of North Africa are collectively known as Berbers or Amazigh in English. Tribal titles such as Barabara and Beraberata appear in Egyptian inscriptions of 1700 and 1300 B.C, and the Berbers were probably intimately related with
768-426: A desire to quickly end conflict in a profitable client kingdom, sought to settle the quarrel by dividing Numidia into two parts. Jugurtha was assigned the western half. However, soon after, conflict broke out again, leading to the Jugurthine War between Rome and Numidia. In antiquity, Mauretania (3rd century BC – 44 BC) was an ancient Mauri Berber kingdom in modern Morocco and part of Algeria. It became
864-659: A lesser extent Tunisia , Mauritania , northern Mali and northern Niger . Smaller Berber communities are also found in Burkina Faso and Egypt 's Siwa Oasis . Descended from Stone Age tribes of North Africa, accounts of the Imazighen were first mentioned in Ancient Egyptian writings . From about 2000 BCE, Berber languages spread westward from the Nile Valley across the northern Sahara into
960-418: A long and seemingly endless campaign, as the Romans tried to inflict a decisive defeat on Jugurtha. A series of incompetent generals of Rome began this renewed war; in 110 BC Jugurtha forced capitulation of an entire army being led by Aulus Postumius Albinus and drove the Romans out of Numidia entirely. Metellus won several battles against Jugurtha in 109 BC but failed to spur Jugurtha to surrender. Frustrated at
1056-401: A long way. He famously described Rome as "urbem venalem et mature perituram, si emptorem invenerit" ("a city for sale and doomed to quick destruction, if it should find a buyer," Sallust , Jug. 35.10). When Micipsa died in 118 BC, he was succeeded jointly by Jugurtha and his two sons (Jugurtha's adoptive-brothers) Hiempsal and Adherbal . Hiempsal and Jugurtha quarrelled immediately after
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#17327719982791152-577: A more recent intrusion being associated with the Neolithic Revolution . The proto-Berber tribes evolved from these prehistoric communities during the late Bronze - and early Iron ages. Uniparental DNA analysis has established ties between Berbers and other Afroasiatic speakers in Africa. Most of these populations belong to the E1b1b paternal haplogroup, with Berber speakers having among
1248-553: A period, the Berbers were in constant revolt, and in 396 there was a great uprising. Thousands of rebels streamed down from the mountains and invaded Punic territory, carrying the serfs of the countryside along with them. The Carthaginians were obliged to withdraw within their walls and were besieged. Yet the Berbers lacked cohesion; and although 200,000 strong at one point, they succumbed to hunger, their leaders were offered bribes, and "they gradually broke up and returned to their homes". Thereafter, "a series of revolts took place among
1344-428: A point of view fundamentally foreign to the Berbers. A population of mixed ancestry, Berber and Punic, evolved there, and there would develop recognized niches in which Berbers had proven their utility. For example, the Punic state began to field Berber–Numidian cavalry under their commanders on a regular basis. The Berbers eventually were required to provide soldiers (at first "unlikely" paid "except in booty"), which by
1440-646: A process of cultural and linguistic assimilation known as Arabization , which influenced the Berber population. Arabization involved the spread of Arabic language and Arab culture among the Berbers, leading to the adoption of Arabic as the primary language and conversion to Islam . Notably, the Arab migrations to the Maghreb from the 7th century to the 17th century accelerated this process. Berber tribes remained powerful political forces and founded new ruling dynasties in
1536-520: A small Christian community as late as the 10th century. The town's further development is detailed under the article Constantine . The bishopric of Cirta was venerable and prominent in the African church. Several of its bishops are known: Today the town of Constantine is again the seat of a diocese . 36°22′03″N 6°36′43″E / 36.36750°N 6.61194°E / 36.36750; 6.61194 Berbers Berbers , or
1632-590: A text collected in the Optatan Appendix . A cave for the practice of Mithraism also existed in the 4th century. In 412, Cirta was host to the Second Council of Cirta , overseen by St Augustine . According to Mommsen , Cirta was fully Latin -speaking and Christian by the time the Vandals arrived in AD 430. Under the emperor Justinian I , the city walls were reinforced and
1728-529: Is now western Tunisia and eastern Algeria . Indigenous inhabitants of Numidia remained semi-nomadic, often identified as Berbers , until Masinissa , chief of the Massyli tribe based near Cirta, who supported Rome during the Second Punic War (206 BC) against the nearby Punics of Carthage , used the support of Rome to establish a kingdom. To do so Masinissa defeated the rival chief Syphax with
1824-629: Is unnamed in the poem) a hero of the Algerian struggle for independence against France. The poem opens: A prodigious child was born in the Arabian hills And a light breeze said: "He is Jugurtha's heir." A few days had passed when there arose from the infant Who would be the Jugurtha of the Arab people and nation, Above the child, astonishing his parents, The shade of Jugurtha himself, Telling
1920-588: The Berber peoples , also known as Amazigh or Imazighen , are a diverse grouping of distinct ethnic groups indigenous to North Africa who predate the arrival of Arabs in the Maghreb . Their main connections are identified by their usage of Berber languages , most of them mutually unintelligible, which are part of the Afroasiatic language family . They are indigenous to the Maghreb region of North Africa, where they live in scattered communities across parts of Morocco , Algeria , Libya , and to
2016-835: The Byzantines , the Vandals and the Ottoman Turks . Even after the Arab conquest of North Africa , the Kabyle people still maintained possession of their mountains. According to the Roman historian Gaius Sallustius Crispus , the original people of North Africa are the Gaetulians and the Libyans, they were the prehistoric peoples that crossed to Africa from Iberia , then much later, Hercules and his army crossed from Iberia to North Africa where his army intermarried with
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#17327719982792112-600: The Cimbrian War and the Senate merely sent two successive embassies to remonstrate with Jugurtha who delayed until he had captured Cirta. His troops then massacred many residents including the Romans. This brought Jugurtha into direct conflict with Rome, which sent troops under the Consul Lucius Calpurnius Bestia . Although the Romans made significant inroads into Numidia, their heavy infantry
2208-588: The Confederatio Cirtense . Its magistrates and municipal assembly were those of the confederation. Cirta administered fortifications ( castella ) in the High Plains and at the north end of the colonies: Castellum Mastarense, Elephantum, Tidditanorum , Cletianis, Thibilis , Sigus, and others. In 27 and 26 BC, the area's administration was restructured under Augustus , who split Cirta into communities ( Latin : pagi ) separating
2304-575: The Donatist doctrine and being a Berber, ascribed to the doctrine matching their culture, as well as their being alienated from the dominant Roman culture of the Catholic church), some perhaps Jewish , and some adhered to their traditional polytheist religion . The Roman-era authors Apuleius and St. Augustine were born in Numidia, as were three popes , one of whom, Pope Victor I , served during
2400-528: The Holocene . In 2013, Iberomaurusian skeletons from the prehistoric sites of Taforalt and Afalou in the Maghreb were also analyzed for ancient DNA . All of the specimens belonged to maternal clades associated with either North Africa or the northern and southern Mediterranean littoral , indicating gene flow between these areas since the Epipaleolithic . The ancient Taforalt individuals carried
2496-520: The Mulucha River . This brought the war to a close; Jugurtha was brought to Rome in chains and was paraded through the streets as Gaius Marius' Roman triumph after which his royal robes were removed and his earrings were ripped off. He lost an ear lobe in the process. He was then thrown into the Tullianum , where he was starved to death or (more likely) executed by strangulation in 104 BC. He
2592-533: The Phoenician settlement of Carthage to its east. During the second of Rome's wars against Carthage , the 203 BC Battle of Cirta was a decisive victory for Scipio Africanus . The kingdom remained an independent Roman ally following the destruction of Carthage in the Third Punic War , but Roman commercial influence and political involvement grew. When King Micipsa died in 118 BC,
2688-589: The Roman era . Byzantine authors mention the Mazikes (Amazigh) as tribal people raiding the monasteries of Cyrenaica . Garamantia was a notable Berber kingdom that flourished in the Fezzan area of modern-day Libya in the Sahara desert between 400 BC and 600 AD. Roman-era Cyrenaica became a center of early Christianity . Some pre-Islamic Berbers were Christians (there is a strong correlation between adherence to
2784-403: The early Berbers . Hence, the interactions between Berbers and Phoenicians were often asymmetrical. The Phoenicians worked to keep their cultural cohesion and ethnic solidarity, and continuously refreshed their close connection with Tyre , the mother city. The earliest Phoenician coastal outposts were probably meant merely to resupply and service ships bound for the lucrative metals trade with
2880-815: The 10th and 11th centuries, such as the Zirids , Hammadids , various Zenata principalities in the western Maghreb, and several Taifa kingdoms in al-Andalus , and empires of the Almoravids and Almohads . Their Berber successors – the Marinids , the Zayyanids , and the Hafsids – continued to rule until the 16th century. From the 16th century onward, the process continued in the absence of Berber dynasties; in Morocco, they were replaced by Arabs claiming descent from
2976-512: The 14th century. Jugurtha Jugurtha or Jugurthen ( Libyco-Berber Yugurten or Yugarten , c. 160 – 104 BC) was a king of Numidia . When the Numidian king Micipsa , who had adopted Jugurtha, died in 118 BC, Jugurtha and his two adoptive brothers, Hiempsal and Adherbal , succeeded him. Jugurtha arranged to have Hiempsal killed and, after a civil war, defeated and killed Adherbal in 112 BC. The death of Adherbal, which
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3072-494: The 5th century BC, Carthage expanded its territory, acquiring Cape Bon and the fertile Wadi Majardah , later establishing control over productive farmlands for several hundred kilometres. Appropriation of such wealth in land by the Phoenicians would surely provoke some resistance from the Berbers; although in warfare, too, the technical training, social organization, and weaponry of the Phoenicians would seem to work against
3168-492: The Arab conquests of the 7th century and this distinction was revived by French colonial administrators in the 19th century. Today, the term "Berber" is viewed as pejorative by many who prefer the term "Amazigh". Since the late 20th century, a trans-national movement – known as Berberism or the Berber Culture Movement – has emerged among various parts of the Berber populations of North Africa to promote
3264-747: The Berber language and traditions best have been, in general, Algeria, Libya, Morocco and Tunisia. Much of Berber culture is still celebrated among the cultural elite in Morocco and Algeria, especially in the Kabylia , the Aurès and the Atlas Mountains . The Kabyles were one of the few peoples in North Africa who remained independent during successive rule by the Carthaginians , the Romans ,
3360-454: The Berber peoples also formed quasi-independent satellite societies along the steppes of the frontier and beyond, where a minority continued as free 'tribal republics'. While benefiting from Punic material culture and political-military institutions, these peripheral Berbers (also called Libyans)—while maintaining their own identity, culture, and traditions—continued to develop their own agricultural skills and village societies, while living with
3456-501: The Berbers continued throughout the life of Carthage. The unequal development of material culture and social organization perhaps fated the relationship to be an uneasy one. A long-term cause of Punic instability, there was no melding of the peoples. It remained a source of stress and a point of weakness for Carthage. Yet there were degrees of convergence on several particulars, discoveries of mutual advantage, occasions of friendship, and family. The Berbers gain historicity gradually during
3552-557: The Berbers who advanced their interests following the Roman victory. Carthage was faulted by her ancient rivals for the "harsh treatment of her subjects" as well as for "greed and cruelty". Her Libyan Berber sharecroppers, for example, were required to pay half of their crops as tribute to the city-state during the emergency of the First Punic War . The normal exaction taken by Carthage was likely "an extremely burdensome" one-quarter. Carthage once famously attempted to reduce
3648-508: The Berbers. Nonetheless, a modern criticism is that the Carthaginians "did themselves a disservice" by failing to promote the common, shared quality of "life in a properly organized city" that inspires loyalty, particularly with regard to the Berbers. Again, the tribute demanded by Carthage was onerous. [T]he most ruinous tribute was imposed and exacted with unsparing rigour from the subject native states, and no slight one either from
3744-675: The Egyptians in very early times. Thus the true ethnical name may have become confused with Barbari , the designation naturally used by classical conquerors. The plural form Imazighen is sometimes also used in English. While Berber is more widely known among English-speakers, its usage is a subject of debate, due to its historical background as an exonym and present equivalence with the Arabic word for " barbarian ". Historically, Berbers did not refer to themselves as Berbers/Amazigh but had their own terms to refer to themselves. For example,
3840-862: The Iberians, and perhaps at first regarded trade with the Berbers as unprofitable. However, the Phoenicians eventually established strategic colonial cities in many Berber areas, including sites outside of present-day Tunisia, such as the settlements at Oea , Leptis Magna , Sabratha (in Libya), Volubilis , Chellah , and Mogador (now in Morocco). As in Tunisia, these centres were trading hubs, and later offered support for resource development, such as processing olive oil at Volubilis and Tyrian purple dye at Mogador. For their part, most Berbers maintained their independence as farmers or semi-pastorals, although, due to
3936-580: The Islamic prophet Muhammad . Berbers are divided into several diverse ethnic groups and Berber languages, such as Kabyles , Chaouis and Rifians . Historically, Berbers across the region did not see themselves as a single cultural or linguistic unit, nor was there a greater "Berber community", due to their differing cultures. They also did not refer to themselves as Berbers/Amazigh but had their own terms to refer to their own groups and communities. They started being referred to collectively as Berbers after
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4032-555: The Kabyles use the term "Leqbayel" to refer to their own people, while the Chaouis identified themselves as "Ishawiyen" instead of Berber/Amazigh. Stéphane Gsell proposed the translation "noble/free" for the term Amazigh based on Leo Africanus 's translation of "awal amazigh" as "noble language" referring to Berber languages , this definition remains disputed and is largely seen as an undue extrapolation. The term Amazigh also has
4128-433: The Libyans [Berbers] from the fourth century onwards". The Berbers had become involuntary 'hosts' to the settlers from the east, and were obliged to accept the dominance of Carthage for centuries. Nonetheless, therein they persisted largely unassimilated, as a separate, submerged entity, as a culture of mostly passive urban and rural poor within the civil structures created by Punic rule. In addition, and most importantly,
4224-530: The Maghreb contained several fully independent tribes (e.g., Sanhaja , Houaras, Zenata , Masmuda , Kutama , Awraba, Barghawata , etc.). The Mauro-Roman Kingdom was an independent Christian Berber kingdom centred in the capital city of Altava (present-day Algeria) which controlled much of the ancient Roman province of Mauretania Caesariensis . Berber Christian communities within the Maghreb all but disappeared under Islamic rule. The indigenous Christian population in some Nefzaoua villages persisted until
4320-453: The Maghreb. A series of Berber peoples such as the Mauri , Masaesyli , Massyli , Musulamii , Gaetuli , and Garamantes gave rise to Berber kingdoms, such as Numidia and Mauretania . Other kingdoms appeared in late antiquity, such as Altava , Aurès , Ouarsenis , and Hodna . Berber kingdoms were eventually suppressed by the Arab conquests of the 7th and 8th centuries CE. This started
4416-604: The Massylii, Masinissa, allied himself with Rome, and Syphax, of the Masaesyli, switched his allegiance to the Carthaginian side. At the end of the war, the victorious Romans gave all of Numidia to Masinissa. At the time of his death in 148 BC, Masinissa's territory extended from Mauretania to the boundary of Carthaginian territory, and southeast as far as Cyrenaica, so that Numidia entirely surrounded Carthage except towards
4512-579: The Mauri, the Numidians near Carthage , and the Gaetulians . The Mauri inhabited the far west (ancient Mauretania , now Morocco and central Algeria). The Numidians occupied the regions between the Mauri and the city-state of Carthage. Both the Mauri and the Numidians had significant sedentary populations living in villages, and their peoples both tilled the land and tended herds. The Gaetulians lived to
4608-605: The Numidian throne. The public opinion of Roman citizens and elites, among the most powerful political forces in Republican Rome, turned against him and Jugurtha was once again at war with the Republic. War again broke out between Numidia and the Roman Republic , and several legions were dispatched to North Africa under the command of the consul , Quintus Caecilius Metellus Numidicus . The war dragged out into
4704-672: The Numidians from the Sittiani and other newly settled Romans. With the expansion of the Roman limes , this colony at Cirta was at the center of the most Romanized area of Roman Africa . It was protected by the Fossatum Africae stretching from Sitifis and Icosium (present-day Algiers) to Capsa on the Gulf of Gabès . Robin Daniel estimates that by the end of the 2nd century, Cirta had nearly 50,000 inhabitants. Cirta in 303 AD
4800-425: The Roman city. It declined in importance after the Muslim invasions , but a small community continued at the site for several centuries. Its ruins are now an archaeological site. A number of significant archaeological finds have been found in the area, including a large corpus of Punic inscriptions , known as the Cirta steles . The town's Punic name krṭn ( 𐤊𐤓𐤈𐤍 , probably pronounced " Kirthan ", with
4896-434: The Roman province of Mauretania (in modern Algeria and Morocco) to the west, the Roman province of Africa (modern Tunisia) to the east, the Mediterranean to the north, and the Sahara Desert to the south. Its people were the Numidians. The name Numidia was first applied by Polybius and other historians during the third century BC to indicate the territory west of Carthage, including the entire north of Algeria as far as
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#17327719982794992-416: The Sittians"). Under Augustus , in 27 or 30 BC, its official name was Colonia Julia Juvenalis Honoris et Virtutis Cirta ; this was sometimes reduced to Cirta Julia (" Julian Cirta"), ' Colonia Cirta or simply Cirta . This name was rendered as Ancient Greek : Κίρτα , romanized : Kírta by the historians Diodorus Siculus , Polybius , Appian , Cassius Dio , and Procopius and by
5088-453: The Tassili n'Ajjer paintings, developed and predominated in the Saharan and Mediterranean region (the Maghreb) of northern Africa between 6000 and 2000 BC (until the classical period). Prehistoric Tifinagh inscriptions were found in the Oran region. During the pre-Roman era, several successive independent states (Massylii) existed before King Masinissa unified the people of Numidia . The areas of North Africa that have retained
5184-482: The bishop of Cirta was accused of having handed over (Latin: traditio ) Christian texts to the authorities during the Diocletianic Persecution , which had begun in 303 in Cirta. The bishop Silvanus was a Donatist and was prosecuted in December 320 by Domitius Zenophilus , the consularis and proconsul of Africa ; the records of the proceedings ( commentarii ) are preserved in the Latin: Gesta apud Zenophilum , lit. 'Deeds of Zenophilus',
5280-406: The city was destroyed after a siege by Rufius Volusianus , the praefectus praetorio of the augustus Maxentius ; Maxentius's forces defeated the imperial claimant Domitius Alexander in 310. Constantine the Great rebuilt under his own name after 312 and his own victory over Maxentius in the Battle of the Milvian Bridge . Constantine made Constantina the capital of all Roman Numidia. In 320
5376-403: The city was named capital of its region with a resident commander ( dux ). Cirta was part of the Byzantine Africa from 534 to 697. During the Muslim conquest of the Maghreb , Constantine was unsuccessfully defended by the Berber queen Kahina . Although many Roman, Byzantine, and Vandal cities were destroyed during the expansion of the Caliphate , Constantine survived in reduced form with
5472-414: The cognate Phoenician states. ... Hence arose that universal disaffection, or rather that deadly hatred, on the part of her foreign subjects, and even of the Phoenician dependencies, toward Carthage, on which every invader of Africa could safely count as his surest support. ... This was the fundamental, the ineradicable weakness of the Carthaginian Empire ... The Punic relationship with the majority of
5568-450: The complexity of the politics involved. Eventually, the Phoenician trading stations would evolve into permanent settlements, and later into small towns, which would presumably require a wide variety of goods as well as sources of food, which could be satisfied through trade with the Berbers. Yet, here too, the Phoenicians probably would be drawn into organizing and directing such local trade, and also into managing agricultural production. In
5664-453: The death of Gaius Gracchus ). Jugurtha was assigned the western half; later Roman propaganda claimed that this half was also richer, but in truth it was both less populated and less developed. By 112 BC Jugurtha resumed his war with Adherbal, penning the latter up in his capital of Cirta . Adherbal was encouraged to hold out by a corps of Roman residents, in expectation of military aid arriving from Rome. However, Roman troops were engaged in
5760-481: The death of Micipsa. Jugurtha had Hiempsal killed, which led to open war with Adherbal. After Jugurtha defeated him in open battle, Adherbal fled to Rome for help. The Roman officials settled the fight by dividing Numidia into two parts, probably in 116, but this settlement was tainted by accusations that the Roman officials accepted bribes to favor Jugurtha. Among the officials found guilty was Lucius Opimius (who, as consul in 121 BC, had presided over events which led to
5856-423: The dissolution of its confederation of colonies in the 4th century, Cirta recovered its role as a capital when it headed the territory of Numidia Cirtensis created under Diocletian : however, after some decades, Emperor Constantine the Great reunited the two provinces created in 303 (Cirtensis & Militiana) in a single one, administered from Cirta, which was renamed Constantina (modern Constantine). Indeed,
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#17327719982795952-434: The elegant Libyan pharaohs on the Nile). Correspondingly, in early Carthage, careful attention was given to securing the most favourable treaties with the Berber chieftains, "which included intermarriage between them and the Punic aristocracy". In this regard, perhaps the legend about Dido , the foundress of Carthage, as related by Trogus is apposite. Her refusal to wed the Mauritani chieftain Hiarbus might be indicative of
6048-488: The example of Carthage, their organized politics increased in scope and sophistication. In fact, for a time their numerical and military superiority (the best horse riders of that time) enabled some Berber kingdoms to impose a tribute on Carthage, a condition that continued into the 5th century BC. Also, due to the Berbero-Libyan Meshwesh dynasty 's rule of Egypt (945–715 BC), the Berbers near Carthage commanded significant respect (yet probably appearing more rustic than
6144-481: The fourth century BC became "the largest single element in the Carthaginian army". Yet in times of stress at Carthage, when a foreign force might be pushing against the city-state, some Berbers would see it as an opportunity to advance their interests, given their otherwise low status in Punic society. Thus, when the Greeks under Agathocles (361–289 BC) of Sicily landed at Cape Bon and threatened Carthage (in 310 BC), there were Berbers, under Ailymas, who went over to
6240-428: The geographers Ptolemy and Strabo . After its refounding as Constantina ( Latin : Civitas Constantina Cirtensium ) by Constantine the Great after AD 312, Cirta became known as Constantine . Following its Muslim conquest , it was known as Qusantina . Cirta was the capital of the Berber kingdom of Numidia , an important political, economic, and military site west of the mercantile empire run by
6336-402: The help of famed Roman general Scipio Africanus in 203 BC. Numidian horsemanship and cavalry tactics, as asserted by Polybius , contributed greatly to the development of cavalry tactics in the Roman army which helped them to victory in the Second Punic War. His alliance with Rome began to fray in the mid-second century BC among Roman fears of Masinissa's ambitions and of Carthage's resurgence on
6432-399: The highest frequencies of this lineage. Additionally, genomic analysis found that Berber and other Maghreb communities have a high frequency of an ancestral component that originated in the Near East. This Maghrebi element peaks among Tunisian Berbers. This ancestry is related to the Coptic/Ethio-Somali component, which diverged from these and other West Eurasian-affiliated components before
6528-516: The invading Greeks. During the long Second Punic War (218–201 BC) with Rome (see below), the Berber King Masinissa ( c. 240 – c. 148 BC) joined with the invading Roman general Scipio, resulting in the war-ending defeat of Carthage at Zama, despite the presence of their renowned general Hannibal; on the other hand, the Berber King Syphax (d. 202 BC) had supported Carthage. The Romans, too, read these cues, so that they cultivated their Berber alliances and, subsequently, favored
6624-466: The lands of the Roman Republic . Cirta fell under direct Roman rule in 46 BC, following Julius Caesar 's conquest of North Africa. P. Sittius Nucerinus was chosen by Caesar to romanize the locals. His men, the "Sittians" ( Sittiani ), were Campanian legionaries who controlled Cirta's lands on Rome's behalf. Together with the colonies at Rusicade , Milevum , and Chullu , their Cirta formed an autonomous territory within "New Africa" :
6720-496: The local populace and settled the region permanently, the Medes of his army that married the Libyans formed the Maur people, while the other part of his Army formed the Nomadas or as they are today known as the Numidians which later on united all of Berber tribes of North Africa under the rule of Massinissa . According to the Al-Fiḥrist , the Barber (i.e. Berbers) comprised one of seven principal races in Africa. The medieval Tunisian scholar Ibn Khaldun (1332–1406), recounting
6816-573: The maternal haplogroups K1 , T2 and X2 , the latter of which were common mtDNA lineages in Neolithic Europe and Anatolia . These ancient individuals likewise bore the Berber-associated Maghrebi genomic component. This altogether indicates that the late-Neolithic Kehf el Baroud inhabitants were ancestral to contemporary populations in the area, but also likely experienced gene flow from Europe . The late-Neolithic Kehf el Baroud inhabitants were modelled as being of about 50% local North African ancestry and 50% Early European Farmer (EEF) ancestry. It
6912-501: The maternal haplogroups U6a and M1 , all of which are frequent among present-day communities in the Maghreb. These ancient individuals also bore an autochthonous Maghrebi genomic component that peaks among modern Berbers, indicating that they were ancestral to populations in the area. Additionally, fossils excavated at the Kelif el Boroud site near Rabat were found to carry the broadly-distributed paternal haplogroup T-M184 as well as
7008-669: The mtDNA haplogroups U6 , H , JT , and V , which points to population continuity in the region dating from the Iberomaurusian period. Human fossils excavated at the Ifri n'Amr ou Moussa site in Morocco have been radiocarbon dated to the Early Neolithic period, c. 5,000 BC. Ancient DNA analysis of these specimens indicates that they carried paternal haplotypes related to the E1b1b1b1a (E-M81) subclade and
7104-646: The near south, on the northern margins of the Sahara , and were less settled, with predominantly pastoral elements. For their part, the Phoenicians ( Semitic-speaking Canaanites ) came from perhaps the most advanced multicultural sphere then existing, the western coast of the Fertile Crescent region of West Asia . Accordingly, the material culture of Phoenicia was likely more functional and efficient, and their knowledge more advanced, than that of
7200-409: The newcomers from the east in an asymmetric symbiosis. As the centuries passed, a society of Punic people of Phoenician descent but born in Africa, called Libyphoenicians emerged there. This term later came to be applied also to Berbers acculturated to urban Phoenician culture. Yet the whole notion of a Berber apprenticeship to the Punic civilization has been called an exaggeration sustained by
7296-534: The number of its Libyan and foreign soldiers, leading to the Mercenary War (240–237 BC). The city-state also seemed to reward those leaders known to deal ruthlessly with its subject peoples, hence the frequent Berber insurrections. Moderns fault Carthage for failure "to bind her subjects to herself, as Rome did [her Italians]", yet Rome and the Italians held far more in common perhaps than did Carthage and
7392-465: The oral traditions prevalent in his day, sets down two popular opinions as to the origin of the Berbers: according to one opinion, they are descended from Canaan, son of Ham , and have for ancestors Berber, son of Temla, son of Mazîgh, son of Canaan, son of Ham, a son of Noah; alternatively, Abou-Bekr Mohammed es-Souli (947 CE) held that they are descended from Berber, the son of Keloudjm ( Casluhim ),
7488-413: The outset of the major war (112–105 BC), Bocchus stood out of the way of the issue, eventually joining Jugurtha in the fighting against Marius in 107 BC. This was short-lived support, though, as in 105 BC Marius sent his quaestor , Sulla , to Mauretania in order to weaken Jugurtha. Bocchus agreed to betray Jugurtha and hand him over to Sulla in exchange for extension of his lands into western Numidia to
7584-463: The part of Cato the Elder . Masinissa died before any actual breach in the treaty in early 148 BC, but the suspicion of Numidia lasted in Rome to affect Jugurtha. Masinissa was succeeded by his son Micipsa . Jugurtha, Micipsa's adopted son ( Mastanabal 's illegitimate son and thusly Masinissa's illegitimate grandson), was so popular among the Numidians that Micipsa sent him away to Hispania to assist
7680-411: The region and to secure the protection of its citizens abroad. As Cirta rebuilt in the 1st century BC, its population was quite diverse: native Numidians alongside Carthaginian refugees and Greek, Roman, and Italian merchants, bankers, settlers, and army veterans. This expatriate community made it an important business hub of Rome's African holdings, even while it remained technically outside
7776-402: The reign of Roman emperor Septimius Severus , who was a North African of Roman/Punic ancestry (perhaps with some Berber blood). Numidia (202 – 46 BC) was an ancient Berber kingdom in modern Algeria and part of Tunisia. It later alternated between being a Roman province and being a Roman client state . The kingdom was located on the eastern border of modern Algeria, bordered by
7872-477: The river Mulucha ( Muluya ), about 160 kilometres (100 mi) west of Oran. The Numidians were conceived of as two great groups: the Massylii in eastern Numidia, and the Masaesyli in the west. During the first part of the Second Punic War, the eastern Massylii, under King Gala , were allied with Carthage, while the western Masaesyli, under King Syphax, were allied with Rome. In 206 BC, the new king of
7968-600: The same population as modern Berbers. The Maghreb region in northwestern Africa is believed to have been inhabited by Berbers from at least 10,000 BC. Cave paintings , which have been dated to twelve millennia before present, have been found in the Tassili n'Ajjer region of southeastern Algeria. Other rock art has been discovered at Tadrart Acacus in the Libyan desert. A Neolithic society, marked by domestication and subsistence agriculture and richly depicted in
8064-559: The sea. Masinissa was succeeded by his son Micipsa . When Micipsa died in 118 BC, he was succeeded jointly by his two sons Hiempsal I and Adherbal and Masinissa's illegitimate grandson, Jugurtha , of Berber origin, who was very popular among the Numidians. Hiempsal and Jugurtha quarreled immediately after the death of Micipsa. Jugurtha had Hiempsal killed, which led to open war with Adherbal. After Jugurtha defeated him in open battle, Adherbal fled to Rome for help. The Roman officials, allegedly due to bribes but perhaps more likely out of
8160-669: The son of Mesraim , the son of Ham. They belong to a powerful, formidable, brave and numerous people; a true people like so many others the world has seen – like the Arabs, the Persians, the Greeks and the Romans. The men who belong to this family of peoples have inhabited the Maghreb since the beginning. As of about 5000 BC, the populations of North Africa were descended primarily from the Iberomaurusian and Capsian cultures, with
8256-472: The stagnation and likely facing political pressure from Rome, Metellus's lieutenant, Gaius Marius , returned to Rome to seek election as consul in 107 BC. After winning the election, Marius returned to Numidia to take control of the war which Jugurtha was prolonging through successful guerrilla warfare. Jugurtha was allied with his western neighbor Mauretania by marriage, Bocchus I of Mauretania both his ally and father-in-law, an age-old diplomatic move. At
8352-519: The tribal Berbers. This social-cultural interaction in early Carthage has been summarily described: Lack of contemporary written records makes the drawing of conclusions here uncertain, which can only be based on inference and reasonable conjecture about matters of social nuance. Yet it appears that the Phoenicians generally did not interact with the Berbers as economic equals, but employed their agricultural labour, and their household services, whether by hire or indenture; many became sharecroppers . For
8448-409: The tribal assembly to vote safe conduct to Jugurtha to come to Rome to give evidence against the officials suspected of succumbing to bribery. However once Jugurtha had reached Rome, another tribune used his veto to prevent evidence being given. Jugurtha also severely damaged his reputation and weakened his position by using his time in Rome to set gangs onto a cousin, named Massiva, a potential rival for
8544-402: Was against the wishes of Rome , along with the growing popular anger in Rome at Jugurtha's success in bribing Roman senators and thus avoiding retribution for his crimes, led to the Jugurthine War between Rome and Numidia. After a number of battles in Numidia between Roman and Numidian forces, Jugurtha was captured in 105 BC and paraded through Rome as part of Gaius Marius ' Roman triumph . He
8640-475: Was enlarged in 310 AD by the emperor Constantine. Christianity arrived early on: while little remains of African Christianity before AD 200, records of Christians martyred at Cirta existed by the mid-3rd century. It became the chief town of an ecclesiastical district. Around 305, the First Council of Cirta was held to elect a new bishop, accidentally precipitating the Donatist movement. After
8736-725: Was suggested that EEF ancestry had entered North Africa through Cardial Ware colonists from Iberia sometime between 5000 and 3000 BC. They were found to be closely related to the Guanches of the Canary Islands . The authors of the study suggested that the Berbers of Morocco carried a substantial amount of EEF ancestry before the establishment of Roman colonies in Berber Africa . The great tribes of Berbers in classical antiquity (when they were often known as ancient Libyans) were said to be three (roughly, from west to east):
8832-498: Was surrounded by the autonomous territory of a "Confederation of Four Free Roman cities" (with Chullu , Russicada , and Milevum ), ruled initially by Publius Sittius . The city was destroyed in the beginning of the 4th century and was rebuilt by the Roman emperor Constantine the Great , who gave his name to the newly constructed city, Constantine . The Vandals damaged Cirta, but Emperor Justinian I reconquered and improved
8928-460: Was survived by his son, Oxyntas . Jugurtha features in one of Arthur Rimbaud 's earliest surviving poems. Rimbaud was a French poet living in the mid- to late nineteenth century, his father a captain in the French army. The poem is a Latin ode to the Numidian king, contextualized to Rimbaud's modern context by having the ghost of Jugurtha, à la Hamlet , appear to a baby Abdelkader al-Jazairi (who
9024-464: Was the administrative capital of the newly created Numidia Cirtense , a small province -named from Cirta- made by emperor Diocletian in Roman Numidia in the last years of the third century. Numidia was divided in two: Numidia Cirtensis (or Cirtense), with capital at Cirta, and Numidia Militiana ("Military Numidia"), with capital at the legionary base of Lambaesis . The newly created province
9120-479: Was thrown into the Tullianum prison, where he was executed by strangulation in 104 BC. The Numidian name Jugurtha matches the ancient naming traditions of Berber peoples and is likely analyzable as the Libyco-Berber word yugurtən “he exceeded them” connected to the stem agər/ugər “to exceed” in modern Berber languages. Numidia was a region of North Africa roughly within the boundaries of what
9216-450: Was unable to inflict any significant casualties on Jugurtha's army which included large numbers of light cavalry. Immediately following the sack of Cirta, Bestia accepted an offer of negotiations from Jugurtha, a highly favourable peace treaty which raised suspicions of bribery once more. The local Roman commander was summoned to Rome to face corruption charges brought by his political rival and tribune-elect Gaius Memmius , who also induced
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