Kingdom of the Masaesyli

The Masaesyli were a Berber people of western Numidia whose kingdom, at its height in the late 3rd century BCE, stretched across much of what is now Algeria and into eastern Morocco. Under their best-known king, Syphax, they became a power courted by both Rome and Carthage during the Second Punic War, before defeat in 203 BCE brought their realm under the rule of their eastern rivals, the Massylii.

The Greek geographer Strabo placed the Masaesyli between the Moors to the west and the Massylii to the east, from the river Mulucha, probably the Moulouya, to a cape usually identified with Cape Bougaroun. On that reckoning they held some two-thirds of modern Algeria. Under Syphax their influence at times reached as far as the Strait of Gibraltar. The coast was dotted with Punic trading posts, and finds at sites such as the island of Rachgoun show trade with southern Spain: pottery and metal goods came in, while ivory and ostrich eggshells went out.

The royal seat was Siga, near the mouth of the Tafna, whose harbour belonged entirely to the king. Syphax is regarded as the first ruler in the region to strike his own coins, which show him wearing a diadem, and coins of his son Vermina suggest that father and son may have ruled jointly for a time. Strabo described the kingdom as very rich, able to supply much money and many soldiers, and its wealth came above all from the fertile western region of Orania.

When the Second Punic War broke out in 218 BCE, Syphax leaned towards Rome, then at war with Carthage. In 213 BCE he made an alliance with the Romans, who sent an officer to help train his army, and he fought the Massylii, then allies of Carthage. After the death of the Massylian king Gala around 206 BCE, Syphax seized much of his territory. In the same year he famously hosted both Scipio Africanus and the Carthaginian general Hasdrubal Gisco at Siga, entertaining the two enemies at one table.

The balance shifted when Gala's son Masinissa went over to Rome. Carthage looked for a new ally and found it in Syphax, who married Hasdrubal's daughter Sophonisba, previously promised to Masinissa. At first the alliance worked: Syphax and Hasdrubal forced Scipio to abandon his siege of Utica. But in 203 BCE Scipio routed them at the Battle of the Great Plains. Pursued by Masinissa and the Roman commander Laelius, Syphax was thrown from his wounded horse near Cirta and captured. He was taken to Italy as a prisoner and died at Tibur in 203 or 202 BCE.

Vermina kept fighting for Carthage. He set out to join Hannibal but arrived after the Battle of Zama in 202 BCE and was badly beaten by the Romans, by some accounts losing about 15,000 dead and 12,000 captured. He made peace with Rome in 200 BCE. Masinissa soon absorbed the western lands, uniting Numidia under one crown, although Vermina's son Archobarzane later claimed the title of king.

Our 200 BCE map shows the Masaesylian realm as the Kingdom of Syphax, in western Numidia beside Carthage, at the moment it was passing to Masinissa; Syphax himself had been captured three years earlier. For the wider struggle, see the Punic Wars.