Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume II.djvu/470

 454 NUMIDIA, (raj(Ti5toi, Polyb. iii. 33; Strab. ii. p. 131, xvii. pp. 827, 829, 833; Dionys. 187; Sail. Jug. 92; Plin. v. 1 ; Ma&aesyli, Liv. xxviii. 17), occupying the country to the W.'as far as the river Mulucha. Nomad lite, under all the differences of time and space, presents one uniform tvpe, the " arnientarius Afer " of Virgil {Georg. iii. 344), and Sallust (^((17. 18), who, as governor of Numidia, had opportunity for observation, may be recognised in the modern Kahyle. These live" in huts made of the branches of trees and co- rei-ed with clay, which resemble the " magalia " of the old Numidians, spread in httle groups over the side of the mountains, and store away their grain ni holes in the ground. Numidia, a nation of horsemen, supplied the Carthaginians with the wild cavalry, who, without saddle and bridle, scoured the countiy, as if horse and rider were one creature. jlasinissa, who, till the age of ninety, could spring upon his horse's back (Appian, P«m. 107), represents the true Numidian ; faithless, merciless, unscrupulous, he is a man of barbaric race, acquiring the tastes and the polish of civilisation without any deeper reformation. Agriculture and the arts of life were introduced under Masinissa, and still more by Micipsa. After the fall of Cartilage, the Romans presented the Numidian kint'-s with its library ; but Punic influence must have been very slight. Procopius {B. V. ii. 10), indeed, savs of the inhabitants of both Maurelania and Numidia, that they used the Phoenician language in his time; but it is extremely improbable that they ever used Punic, nor can it be supposed that Proco- pius possessed the information requisite for ascer- taining the fact. They used a language among themselves, unintelligible to the Greeks and Romans, who imagined it to be Punic, wliile there can be little doubt that it was the idiom which they spoke before the arrival of the Phoenician colonists, and which continued to be their vernacular dialect long after the Carthaginians and Romans had ceased to be known among them, even by name. Latin would be the language of the cities, and must have been veiy generally intelligible, as the Christian teachers never appear to have used or to have thought it necessary to learn any other language. II. Physical Geogi-aphy. Recent investigation has shown that the distinc- tion between what was called the " Greater and the Lesser Atlas" must be abandoned. There is only one Atlas, formerly called in the native language "Dyris;" and this name is to be applied to the foldings, or succession of crests, which form the di- vision between the waters flowing to the Mediter- ranean and those which flow towards the Sahura lowland. The E. prolongation of the snow-covered W. summits of the Atlas, ha.3 a direction or strike from E. to W. Numerous projections from this chain run out into the sea, and form abi'upt pro- montories: the first of these in a direction from E. to W., was Hippi Prom. ("Ittttoi; &Kpa, Ptol. iv. 3. § 5: C. de Garde, or Jias-el-Hamrah); then Sto- BORRUM {^T6§oppov, Ptol. I. c: C. de Fer, Mas Eud'id); KusicAUA; CoLLOPS Magnus; at Tres Pr(jm., or the cove at Stba Rus, the Sinus Nuwi- Dicus (Noii,ui5i/fos ki^Attoj, Ptol. iv. 3. § 3), into which the rivers Ampsaga, Audus, and Sisar dis- charged themselves, with the headland Igii.gili {Dsdudscheli) and Saldae (C. Carbon, Bougie, Bedschdjah); after passing RusucuRUM and C. Matifi or Has Temendfiiz, the bold shores of the Bay of A Igiers, to which the ancients gave no name. NUMIDIA. succeed. The chief rivers were the TuscA, the boundary between Numidia and the Roman pro- vince, the RuBRiCATUs or Ubus, and the Ampsaga. The S. boundaries, towards the widely extended low region of the Sahara, are still but little known. From the researches of MJI. Fournel, Renou, and Carette, it appears that the Sahara is composed of several detached basins, and that the number and the population of the fertile oases is much greater than had been imagined. Of larger wild animals, only gazelles, wild asses, and ostriches are to be met with. The lion of the Numidian desert exists only in imagination, as that animal naturally seeks spots where fond and water can be found The camel, the " ship of the desert," was unknown to the ancient horsemen of Numidia; its dift'u.sion must be attributed to the pei'iod of the Ptolemies, who employed it for commercial operations in the valley of the Nile, whence it spread thr.ugh Cyrene to the whole of the NW. of Africa, where it was first brought into military use in the train of armies in the times of the Caesars. The later introduction of this carrier of the desert, so important to the no- madic life of nations, and the patriarchal stage of development, belongs to the Mohammedan epoch of the conquering Arabs. The maritime tract of this country displays nearly the same vegetable forms as the coasts of Andalusia anil Valencia. The olive, the orange-tree, the arborescent ricinus, the Clia- maerops humilis, and the date-tree flourish on both sides of the Mediterranean; and when the warmer sun of N. Africa produces ditferent species, they are generally belonging to the same families as the Eu- ropean tribes. The marble of Numidia, " giallo antico," golden yellow, with reddish veins, was the most highly prized at Rome for its colour. (Plin. XXXV. 1, xxxvi. 8.) The pavement of the Comitium at Rome consisted of slabs of this beautiful mate- rial. (Niebuhr, Led. on Anc. Geog. voL ii. p. 80.) III. History and Political Geography. The Romans became acquainted with these tribes in the First Punic War, when they served as the Carthaginian cavalry. After the great victoiy of Regulus, the Numidians threw otF the yoke of Car- thage. (Polyb. i. 31 ; Diod. Fragm. Vat. x.iii. 4.) The wild array of their horsemen was the most for- midable arm of Hannibal, and with the half-caste Mu- tines at their head, carried destruction throughout Si- cily. In the great struggle of the Second Punic War the Romans made use of these faithless barbarians with great success. The services of Masinissa prince of the E. Numidians, were not unrewarded, and, at the end of the war, he obtamed the dominions of Syphax, his rival, and prince of the W. tribes, the Massaesyli, and a great part of the Carthaginian territory; so that his kingdom extended from the Mulucha on the W., to the Cyrenaica on the E, completely sur- rounding the small strip allowed to Carthage on the coast. (Appian, Pun. 106). When Masinissa died he left his kingdom to his three sons, Gulussa, Micipsa, and Mastanabal. Gulussa and Mastanabal died; the latter left no legitimate children, but only Jugurtha and Gauda, sons by a concubine; and thus the vast dominions of Numidia fell into the hands of Micipsa, the Philhellene. He had two sons, Adherbal and Hiempsal, with whom he asso- ciated Jugurtha in the throne. The latter, spurning a divided empire, murdered Hiempsal, and compelled Adherbal to fly to Rome, where he appealed to the senate against the usurpation of his cousin. The