Carthage was one of the great ancient civilizations, and at its peak, the wealthy Carthaginian empire dominated the Mediterranean against the likes of Greece and Rome, with commercial enterprises and influence stretching from Spain to Turkey. In fact, at several points in history it had a very real chance of replacing the fledgling Roman empire or the failing Greek poleis (city-states) altogether as master of the Mediterranean. Although Carthage by far preferred to exert economic pressure and influence before resorting to direct military power (and even went so far as to rely primarily on mercenary armies paid with its vast wealth for much of its history), it nonetheless produced a number of outstanding generals, from the likes of Hanno Magnus to, of course, the great bogeyman of Roman nightmares himself: Hannibal.

What is often overlooked is how Carthage interacted with other groups in North Africa, some of which fought with them and against them. North Africa is generally thought of as a land devoid of life, full of nothing but desert wastelands and populated only by desert Bedouins, and while the Sahara Desert does comprise the majority of North Africa’s landmass, it is far from being the only significant sub-region of the area. Just to the north of the Sahara Desert, in what are today the modern nation-states of Algeria, Tunisia, and parts of Libya and Morocco, the land was known as Numidia in antiquity. Numida was the complete opposite of the North African stereotype of a desolate place--it was a land of plenty, the home of rich agricultural land that provided a good share of the Roman Empire’s food. Numidia was also home to the Numidian people, who were known for their horsemanship skills, bellicosity, and capriciousness when it came to their friends and allies. From the third century BCE until the mid-first century BCE, the Numidians ruled their land as independent kingdoms that dealt with their more powerful neighbors on a relatively equal footing. As was the case with most non-Hellenic peoples, the Numidians and their culture simultaneously intrigued and repulsed the Romans, but as with all the other peoples, the Numidians also eventually became part of the Roman Empire.

Before the Numidians were conquered by the Romans and Numidia was officially made part of Roman Africa, they developed a culture that was as sophisticated and unique as any in the ancient world. The Numidians were a Berber people who emerged from the edge of the desert in the late second millennium BCE, and despite the harshness of their environment (or perhaps because of it), they eventually became the most powerful people in North Africa. The Numidians found success on the backs of horses, which they rode to countless military victories, and when they could not defeat their enemies with conventional tactics, they were not afraid to resort to asymmetrical warfare.

While the Numidians fought with and against their neighbors, they developed a unique culture that was influenced by the Greeks, Romans, and Carthaginians. Numidian merchants took advantage of their rich land to develop trade routes that made the kingdoms even richer, allowing them to build cities and monuments. Ultimately, however, the Numidians were unable to stop the advance of the Romans, despite making several valiant attempts to do so.