Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume I Part 1.djvu/85

 AFBICA. h^y VIS st tlw stronir xuitiinl fort of CntTA {Cos- tai^Mk): r^nlar cities were, in their earlier his- ttuT, afanost, if not altogether, nnknown to the KimafiaBS. The rdations of these tribes to Car- thifEv are most important, as affectang the boundaries if S<nuin Africft. The fiist chief of the Massylii mentioned in his- torr. Gala, ts sopixMed to have already deprived the Caithaginiana of the important town of Hippo {Bo- •nhy. inasmuch as it is mentioDed with the epithet of Reyka in Lrrr'a narratiTe of the Second Punic War (Liv. xxix. 3); bat, for an obvious reason, we cannot kj much stress on this point of evidence. Much mare important is it to brar in mind that, in these pots, the epithet RegiuB applied to a city does prove that it bclaqged,at«osie time, to theNnmidian princes. la the Secood Pnnic War we find Gala in league vitib the Carthaginians ; but their canse was aban- dard in b.c-206 by his son liasinissa, whose varied fortunes this is not the place to follow out in defcaiL Defeated again and again by the united ft^tcs of the Carthaginians and of Syphax, chief of the Hassaesylii, he retired into the deserts of Inner Hnmidia, that is, the S£. part, about the LesKT Syrtis, and there maintained himself till the hading of Scipio in Africa, b. c. 204, when he the Romans and greatly contributed to their At the oondnsion of the war, his services were amjdly rewardoL He was restored to his hcnditaiy domininos, to which was added the pester part of the country of the Massaesylii; iirphax having been taken prisoner in b. c. 203, aond fent to Borne, where he soon died. The con- dact of the Romans on this occasion displayed quite as sBKh pdicy as gratitude, and l^Ia5inissa*s con- dart iooQ showed that he knew he had been set MA a them in the aide of Carthage. Under cover of the tenna of the treaty and with the connivance «f Bnme, he made a series of aggressions on the Caithagintan territoiy, both on the NW. and on the S£^ mzing the lidi Emporia on the latter side, asd, on the fiirmer, the country W. of the river TiBca, and the district caBed the Great Plain, SE. «f the Bagradas around 36° N. lat., where the name if Zama Regia is a witness of Numidian rule. Thas, when lus constant penecntion at length pro- vobd the Carthaginians to the act of resistance which formed the occasion of the Third Punic War, UsBmaaas kingdom extended from the river Malva to the frootier of Cyrenaica, while the Carthaginians were honmed np in the narrow KE. comer of Zeogitana which they had at first possessed, and Id the snail district of Byzacium ; these, their only mBaining possesaons, extending along the coast from the Tusca to the N. extremity (^ the Lesser ^rtis, opposite Cercina. Kow, Aers ve have the original limUs of <fe Roman provmce oj' Africa, The treaty of poer, at the close of the Second Punic War, hid a ssigned to Ma&inissa all the territoiy which l» ancestors had ever possessed ; he had suc- oenled in carrying out this provision to its iiill olcot, if not beyond it ; and at the close of the Third Panic War, the Romans left his sons their iBbnitaore undiminished, Maranissa himself having died In the 2nd year of the war, b. c. 148. (Ap~ paa. iW. 106.) TIios, the Roman province of •Afiica, which was constituted in b. c 146, in- riaded only the possessions which Carthage had <tf 2ul Sallnst {Jvg. 19) accurately describes the state of the case mder the socceasoca of Masinissa; AFRICA. 69 — "Igitur bello Jugorthino pleraque ex Pimicis oppida et finis Carthagiiiiensium, quos nomasumB htUmeranty populus Romanus per magistratus ad- ministrabat : Gaetulorum magna pars et Numidae usque ad flumen Mulucham sub Jugiulha erant." And, as to the S£. irontier of the Roman province, we learn from Pliny (v. 4. s. 3) that it remained as under Masinissa, and that Scipio Africanus marked out the boundary line between the Roman province and the princes (r^«s) of Numidia, by a fossa which reached the sea at Thenae, thus leaving the Emporia and the region of the Syrtes to the latter. Thus the prorince of Africa embraced the districts of Zeugitana and Byzacinm, or the N. and E. parts of the Regency of Tunis, from the river Tusca to Thenae at the N. end of the Lesser Syrtis. It was constituted by Scipio, with the aid of ten legcUif or commissioners, appointed by the senate from its own body, as was usual when a conquered country was reduced to a province, and on the fol- lowing terms. (Appian. Pun, 135 ; Cic. de Leg, Agr,u. 19.) Such ruins of Carthage as remained were to bo utterly destroyed, and men were forbidden, under a curse, to dwell upon its site; the cities which had taken part with Carthage were devoted to destruction, and their land was partly made ager publicus (comp. Cic. I. c. 22), and partly assigned to those cities which had sided with Rome, namely, Utica, Thapsus, Leptis Minor, Acholla, Usalis, Teudalis, and probably Hadrumetum {Lex ThoriOj lin. 79; Marquardt, JBecher's Handbuch d. Rom. AUerth. vol. iil jpt. 1. p. 226). Utica received aU the land firom Hippo Zurytus to C<arthage, and was made the seat of government. The inhabitants, except of tlie fiivoured cities, were burthened with heavy taxes, assessed on persons as well as on the land. The province was placed under praetorian government, and was divided into conventuSj we are not told how many, but from the mention of those of 2^ugis (Oroe. i. 2) and Hadrumetum (Hirt. Bell, Afr. 97), we may perhaps infer that the former included the whole N. district, Zeugis or 2^ugitana, and the latter the S. district, Byzacinm. The war with Jugurtha caused no alteration of territories; but the Romans gained possession of some cities in the S£. part of Numidia, the chief of which was Leptis Magna, between the Syrtes. (Sail. Jug, 77.) Africa played an important port in the Civil War of Pompey and Caesar. Early in the war, it was seized for the senate by Attius Varus, who, aided by Juba, king of Numidia, defeated and slew Cae- sar's lieutenant Curio: of the remains of Caesar's army, some escaped to Sicily, and some surrendered to Juba; and the province remained in the hands of the Pompeian party, b. c. 49, (Caes. B. C. ii. 23 — 44.) After Pompey's death, and while Caesar played the lover at Alexandria, and " came, saw, conquered " in Pontus (b. c. 47), the Pompeians gathered their forces for a final stand in Africa, under Q. Metellus Scipio, Afranius, and Petreius. These leaders were joined by Cato, who, having collected an army at Cyrene, p^ormed a most difficult march round the shores of the Syrtes, and undertook the defence of Utica, the chief city of the province : how he performed the task, his surname and the story of his death havo long borne witness. The Pompeians were supported by Juba, king of Numidia, but he was kept in check by the army of Bocdius and Bogud, kings of Mauretania, under P. Sittius, an adventurer, who had taken advantage of the discoids v3