Massinissa (MSNSN-Massinissan, on the bilingual inscriptions of Cirta (current Constantine in Algeria), called by the Latin authors Massinissa), is the first king of unified Numidia.
Son of the king (agellid in Berber) Gaïa (G.Y.Y, Punic inscription), son of Zelalsan, son of Ilès. He was born around 238 BC. JC in the Massyles tribe (Mis Ilès). He died in early January 148 BC. JC.
Massinissa, without Roman help, worked throughout his life to recover the territories annexed by Carthage since his establishment in Africa. He notably contributed largely to the victory of the Battle of Zama at the head of his famous Numidian cavalry.
Youth in the Second Punic War
During the Second Punic War, Rome sought to make allies in North Africa. Syphax, king of the Massaessyles in western Numidia, whose capital was Siga (now Ain Temouchent in Algeria), sought to annex the territories of eastern Numidia, ruled by Gaïa, king of the Massyles.
Thus Syphax accepted three Roman centuries and turned against Carthage. Carthage came to the aid of Gaia, in exchange for five thousand Numidian horsemen under the command of the young Massinissa, aged twenty-five, from 212 or 211 BC. Massinissa joined the Carthaginian troops in Spain until the fall of 206 BC. J-C. He won a decisive victory against Syphax, and led a successful guerrilla campaign against the Romans in Iberia.
The Carthaginians, beaten at Ilipa, ended up losing their possessions in the Mediterranean. The Roman general Scipio, who commanded the army in Spain, thought of taking the war to Africa and securing the support of the Numidian kingdoms. He won the friendship of Massinissa from 206 BC. J-C, with whom he had made a secret agreement, then he went to Africa to try to convince Syphax to remain in the alliance. But the Massaessyle king, having heard of the agreement with Massinissa, had already approached Carthage.
Accession to the throne
On the death of Gaïa (206 BC), her brother Oezalces (Oulzacen) succeeded her. Married to a Carthaginian niece of Hannibal, he enjoys the support of the Carthaginians against his neighbors and his turbulent vassals. But Oezalces dies and Capussa ascends the throne.
Impersonation
Capussa is immediately contested by Meztul, his cousin, from the faction rivaling the reigning branch. Meztul obtains weapons and reinforcements from Syphax, tackles Capussa's forces. The fight between the two clans gave victory to Meztul. Capussa died in the middle of the battle, and Meztul seized power to place Lacumazes on the throne, while, according to tradition, the throne returned to Massinissa.
Carthage, approving this usurpation, sealed an alliance with Meztul and gave him the widow of Oezalces as his wife.
Struggles
Massinissa learned of these events while he was in Spain, he decided to leave Gadès for Mauretania (-206), and fearing reprisals from Syphax, an ally of his cousin, he asked for help from Baga, king of the Moors. The latter offered him an escort of 4,000 men who accompanied him to the limits of his lands. After gathering 500 riders among his own and loyal family supporters, he attacked his opponents.
Lacumazes, who was about to leave Thapsus (current Skikda in Algeria, seat of his government to go to Cirta to pay his respects to Syphax, was attacked by Massinissa in a procession not far from the city, defeated in this ambush, Lacumazes nevertheless managed to flee and rejoin Cirta.This victory earned Massinissa an influx of supporters which enabled him to consolidate his position.
Lacumazes and Maztul gathered men of their clan, obtained the help from Syphax and returned to the charge with 15,000 infantry and 10,000 cavalry. Despite a much smaller number of men, Massinissa was still victorious and inflicted a severe defeat on them. Beaten and abandoned by their people, Lacumazes and Meztul took refuge in Carthage this time, at their in-laws.
Then Massinissa occupied Thapsus, which became the capital of the Massyles. In order to consolidate his power, he waged an effective struggle against Carthage and advocated the union of all the Numidians. To Lacumazes and Meztul he offered to restore their property and the consideration due to their rank if they returned to their country. These reassured as to the sincerity of their cousin, left Carthage and joined him.
This grouping of Numidian forces worried the suffetes who then dispatched Asdrubal to Syphax to persuade him of the danger that such a neighbor now represented. Syphax, then pretexted an old quarrel concerning territories that he had once disputed in Gaia to attack Massinissa and force him to exhaust his weak means. Massinissa accepted the fight, his army was routed and Syphax then appropriated part of the Massyles kingdom.
Massinissa, a refugee in the mountains, with a handful of faithful, knew a life of outcast. He nevertheless continued to harass his enemies with organized raids against the Carthaginian countryside and the men of Syphax failed to overcome him. The insecurity he brought to the settlers and his growing popularity in Numidia once again worried the Carthaginian suffets. Expeditions against Massinissa were sent, he was believed dead. But once his wounds healed Massinissa returned to the charge and marched once more against Syphax. Little by little, his compatriots recognized him, gave him their allegiance and offered him the means he lacked.
Recovery
His kingdom recovered, Massinissa then attacked the neighboring territories. The Carthaginian colonists, to defend themselves, linked up with the Massaesyles and gathered a large army against the Massyles. Syphax was at the head of a vast kingdom and his war against Massinissa only gave him even more prestige. Satisfied with his victory, which will hardly be eternal, Syphax grants as a dowry for the marriage of the beautiful Sophonisbe, the territories he had usurped in Gaia. This all happened in 205 BC. J.C., less than a year after Massinissa returned from Spain.
Roman intervention in Africa
Scipio, determined to put an end to Carthage, landed in Africa. The cunning Roman once again tried to lure Syphax who again rejected the proposed alliance. He then turned to Massinissa. The first battles turned in favor of the two allies. The latter, encouraged by their success, attacked Uttica, a Carthaginian stronghold, but the intervention of Syphax forced them to withdraw. They took up their winter quarters and Scipion, in secret from Massinissa, again came into contact with Syphax. Unable to detach him from the Carthaginians, he asked him to propose a solution to end the conflict between Rome and Carthage. Syphax proposed that the Carthaginians evacuate Italy, where they are on campaign, in exchange the Romans would leave Africa. While General Asdrubal, who commanded the Carthaginians accepted the offer, Scipio, who in fact wanted the pure and simple surrender of the Punic City, rejected it.
Massinissa and Scipio resumed their attacks, this time forcing the Punic troops to fall back on Carthage. Syphax, not wanting to lose more men, retired to his kingdom. The Carthaginians, understanding that the Romans would not give them respite, decided, after adopting a defensive attitude, to go on the offensive. They raised a strong army which, joined by Syphax, stormed. It was the Battle of the Great Plains (April 203 BC) which ended with the victory of the combined forces of Massinissa and Scipio. There was a respite during which each side replenished its troops, and then the war resumed. A fight broke out between Massinissa and Syphax, and the latter, surrounded by many soldiers, was about to win, when the Roman army intervened. Thrown to the ground, Syphax was arrested. They chained him and led him under the walls of Cirta who, seeing his king in a sorry state, decided to surrender. Massinissa, after several years of wandering, was thus able to take back the kingdom of his fathers. Carthage, defeated, was forced to sign a peace which deprived it of a large part of its territories and its fleet. The return of Hannibal, who had ended the Italian campaign, raised the hopes of the City. An incident soon broke the peace and the war resumed.
War against Hannibal
Hannibal allied himself with Vermina, the son and successor of Syphax, and together they invaded the kingdom of the Massyles. Massinissa and Scipion joined them in Zama (current Souk-Ahras, in Algeria) and a great battle began (202 BC). The shock was harsh and there were losses on both sides, then the battle turned to the advantage of Massinissa and Scipion. The Latin historian Livy gives a vivid account of this battle:
“A singular combat begins between Massinissa and Hannibal. Hannibal parries a javelin with his shield and strikes down his opponent's horse. Massinissa gets up and, on foot, rushes towards Hannibal, through a hail of arrows, which he receives on his elephant skin shield. He rips off one of the javelins and aims for Hannibal, who he still misses. While he snatches another, he is wounded in the arm and retires a little aside... His wound bandaged, he returns to the fray, on another horse. The fight resumes with a new fierceness, because the soldiers are excited by the presence of their leaders. Hannibal sees his soldiers give way little by little, some move away from the battlefield to heal their wounds, others withdraw definitively. He goes everywhere, encourages his men, knocks down his adversaries here and there, but his efforts remain in vain. Desperate, he thinks only of saving the remnants of his army. He rushes forward, surrounded by a few horsemen, makes his way and leaves the battlefield. Massinissa who sees him launches with his group behind him. He urges him, despite the pain caused by his injury, because he burns to bring him back prisoner. Hannibal escapes under the favor of the night whose darkness begins to cover nature. »
Carthage was again forced to negotiate. But the previous treaty was revised and the Punic city had to return to Massinissa all the territories that had been torn from its ancestors. Hannibal revolted and tried to oppose the treaty but threatened to be handed over to the Romans, he fled to Syria where he committed suicide in 183 BC.
The character and the work
Appian says of him:
“that he was handsome in his youth and tall. He kept, until the most advanced age, an astonishing vigour. He could stay a whole day on his feet or on horseback; octogenarian, he jumped on his mount without any help and, like the other Numidians, he disdained the use of the saddle. He braved the cold and the rain bareheaded. At 88, he commanded his army in a great battle against the Carthaginians; the next day, Scipio Emilien found him on his feet in front of his tent, holding a piece of dry pancake which constituted his entire meal. »
Massinissa had several wives and a considerable number of children including forty three males, among his many daughters, several were married to Carthaginian nobles. Most of the children of Massinissa disappeared before him but there remained, at his death, about ten (Mikusan known as Micipsa, Gulusan, Mastanabal, Masucan...). Massinissa loved children and he kept some of his grandchildren with him for several years. To Greek merchants, who had come to buy monkeys in Numidia, to entertain idle rich people, he would have said:“The women of your country, don’t they give you children? »
Massinissa who was a rough warrior, will encourage literature and the arts, sent his children to study in Greece and received at his court many foreign writers and artists. Courageous man and generous king (pardon granted to Lacumazes and Meztul, protection granted to Sophonisbe).
After the Battle of Zama, Massinissa lived for many more years. He kept his friendship with Rome for his life without ever being its vassal and, against his imperialist appetites, declared, in a formula that has remained famous:"Africa belongs to the Africans". He recovered not only the territories granted to him by the treaty with Carthage but also many cities and regions under the authority of the Carthaginians or Vermina, the son of Syphax. From 174 to 172, he occupied seventy cities and forts!
But Massinissa also knew how to behave like a refined sovereign, wearing rich clothes and a crown on his head, giving, in his palace of Cirta, banquets where the tables were laden with gold and silver dishes and where the musicians from Greece.
Massinissa had fought the Carthaginians but he did not disdain the Carthaginian civilization, from which he knew how to take advantage. The Punic language was in common use in its capital where, in addition to Berber, the Greek and Latin languages were also spoken.
The social and political work of Massinissa was as great as his military work. He settled the Amazighs, built a powerful Numidian State and endowed it with institutions, inspired by those of Rome and Carthage. He minted a national currency and maintained a regular army and a fleet that he sometimes put at the service of his Roman allies. He was a great aguellid, who kneaded his people with his powerful hands and strove to make Berberia a unified and independent state. Never was this country closer to realizing the outline of a nation free to develop its autonomous civilization. Massinissa's attempt highlighted his exceptional qualities as a sovereign.
Tomb of Massinissa at El-Khroub (known as:Soumâa El-Khroub) near Constantine
Tomb of Massinissa at El-Khroub (known as:Soumâa El-Khroub) near Constantine
Massinissa, was famous in all the countries of the Mediterranean and the island of Delos, in Greece, erected three statues to him. Towards the end of his life, he wanted to seize Carthage to make it his capital. The Romans who feared that he would acquire even greater power than that of the Carthaginians and that he would turn against them, opposed this project. Cato, drawing attention to the danger represented by Massinissa, launched his famous formula:“Delenda is Carthago! (“Carthage must be destroyed!”).
It was again war in Africa and, after bitter fighting, Carthage was delivered to the flames, then to pillage. The survivors were reduced to slavery and the city was completely razed (146 BC). Massinissa, who died some time earlier, had not witnessed the fall of the coveted city. His subjects, who loved him, erected a mausoleum for him, not far from Cirta, his capital, and a temple in Thougga, the current Dougga, in Tunisia.