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                                         The first landing in North Africa 

The general commanding the Punic forces in Sicily, Hamilcar - a name given to several Carthaginian generals - believed that the arrival to power of Agathocles, the tyrant of Syracuse (316 BC), was a good sign. However, the Council of Elders of Carthage (an assembly composed of the leaders of the most important aristocratic families) refused to accept the warmongering Agathocles. In 311 BC, a new expedition gave the Carthaginians control over the entire island with the exception of Syracuse. Leaving Hamilcar, the new king of Carthage, to besiege Syracuse, Agathocles came up with an ingenious idea, namely that he should take the war to Africa. His move came as a complete surprise. He landed at Cap Bon and devastated the entire province to the northeast of Carthage. Agathocles took Hadrumetum (Sousse), on the eastern coast of Tunisia; he then schemed to tempt Ophellas, the Macedonian ruler of Cyrenaica, to his cause but killed him and took control of his mercenaries. This allowed him to rapidly occupy all of the African territories of Carthage and he tried, albeit unsuccessfully, to get the Libyans to change their allegiance - a reluctance demonstrating the progress achieved by the Carthaginians in terms of their presence in Africa. However, the attitude of the old Phoenician cities such as Utica or Hippo Diarrhytus (Bizerte) was far more ambiguous.

The landing of Agathocles in Africa was a historic first and an unprecedented tactic and one that would cause, albeit indirectly – as we will see, profound changes in the life of Carthage. The city of Carthage itself resisted all attacks; however, all was lost in Sicily, as the Carthaginians were forced to evacuate the eastern side of the island and pay a tribute of 150 talents and 100,000 hectolitres of wheat.

The end of Punic royalty

The end of the supreme power of the Magonids at the start of the 5th century was long believed to be the death knell for Carthage’s royal family. According to recent studies (Gilbert and Colette Charles-Picard, Life and Death of Carthage, Paris, 1970), however, it seems that kings survived in Carthage for far longer. After the fall of Magonids, although the power of the landed and commercial aristocracy increased the kings retained authority over military and religious matters - in common with the kings of Sparta, as observed by Aristotle in the 4th century BC. Royalty only truly ended with the failure of the attempted coup d’état of King Bomilcar in 308 BC. As Hannibal would do more than a century later, Bomilcar stood up against the ‘bourgeoisie’ – a class more concerned with its own interests than the well-being of the State, given that they had not reacted strongly enough after Agathocles landed in Africa. However, the bourgeoisie stirred up the population and crucified Bomilcar. From that point onwards, even though the title of 'royalty' continued, the kings of Carthage were no longer mentioned. According to Polybius and Livy, the real government was assumed by a committee of thirty members chosen among the Elders. G. Charles-Picard believes that it was only in 237 BC, following the revolution of Hamilcar Barca, that two suffetes became the supreme magistrates of the city. In any event, it was no longer the kings who waged war and, in 306 BC, the elders reformed the army and appointed three generals (Himilco, Hanno and Hasdrubal) overseen by the Council of 104. They vanquished Agathocles in Africa and the tyrant fled, abandoning his army to the reprisals of the Carthaginians. Even though the military campaign of Agathocles had no lasting effects, it changed the face of Carthage forever. Above all, it paved the way for Regulus and Scipio Africanus to follow. 

                                                     

After his victory over Jugurtha, Rome did not annex Barbary but shaped the region as it saw fit. As a reward for having handed over Jugurtha, Mauretania under Bocchus was extended to the westernmost area of Numidia (present-day Oranie region). Gauda, the half brother of Jugurtha, received the much-reduced eastern Numidia (its capital was Zama). A third kingdom, called Western Numidia, located between the kingdoms of Gauda and Bocchus, was probably given to a Berber prince who was a vassal of Rome; Rome received Tripolitania, with Leptis Magna becoming an ‘ally and friend of the Roman people’ in 111 BC.

From Jugurtha's defeat to the civil war between Caesar and Pompey, we have very little knowledge of Barbary’s history. The Mauretania of Bocchus I, who was also an ‘ally and friend of the Roman people’, was practically a protectorate; it supplied soldiers and circus animals to Rome. When Bocchus died (between 80 and 70 BC) the country was divided between his two sons: Bogud reigned over the west and Bocchus II over the east.

Gauda died in 88 BC and Hiempsal became the king of Eastern Numidia. Hiempsal was a scholar who had saved Punic books from the libraries of Carthage; he also wrote a history of the African peoples in Punic. In around 80 B, Hiarbas, a Berber prince, overthrew Masinissa, the king of Western Numidia, and Hiempsal, in order to unite Numidia under his sole authority. However, the Roman Pompey, who had been sent by Sulla as he feared the growing power of Hiarbas, reinstated the two separate kingdoms. Juba I succeeded Hiempsal, probably around 50 BC. He seemed to have a larger personality and was more ambitious than his predecessors, and he organised his army along Roman lines and attacked Leptis Magna. To the south, he fought against raids from the nomads. Rome soon began to believe that he was dangerous, and the tribune Curio suggested the pure and simple confiscation of his kingdom.

However, the surviving Berber kingdoms would play a final role in the civil war that wrenched Rome and the entire empire apart - a war triggered by the rivalry between Caesar and Pompey.

When Caesar, attempting to establish a dictatorship in Rome, crossed the Rubicon, Pompey fled Italy and travelled to Greece (January 49 BC). His lieutenants organised themselves in Spain and especially in Africa; Caesar sent his lieutenant Curio across the Mediterranean to hunt for the Pompeian governor Publius Attius Varus. Varus allied himself to Juba I who believed the civil war offered him an opportunity to enlarge his kingdom. Juba had, as we have seen, a strong army and was able to defeat Curio near Djedeida (to the west of Tunis). He decapitated the Roman Tribune and massacred all the prisoners (49 BC). The Numidian was proclaimed both a ‘friend and ally of the Roman people’ by the 'Pro-Pompeian' Senate of Macedonia and a public enemy by the Senate who were backing 'Caesar'. Thanks to Juba, the supporters of Pompey were on top in Africa at that time. However, Caesar regained the upper hand at Pharsalus in Thessaly (August 48 BC), and decided to end the civil war. On the first of January 46 BC, knowing that the other side had gathered its troops in Africa, he landed near Hadrumetum. Scipio, the adoptive son of Matellus, and Cato the Younger the commander of the army facing Caesar, were counting on the excellent Numidian cavalry of Juba. Caesar joined forces with Bogud and Bocchus II, the kings of Mauretania; and an Italian adventurer named Sittius. When Sittius and Bocchus took Cirta, Juba abandoned Pompey's side. Caesar took the opportunity to engage his troops in a battle at Thapsus (near Dimasse) and on 6 April 46 BC destroyed the army of Scipio. On the same day he captured Juba's camp to the south of Thapsus. Virtually at the same time, Sittius defeated one of Juba's armies near Cirta. Juba and Scipio committed suicide and the entire region of Numidia submitted to Caesar.

“Thapsus, which occurred exactly one hundred years after the destruction of Carthage was a key date in the history of Barbary, as Caesar changed the way the territory was organised” (R. Cornevin). Caesar began by abolishing Numidia, which had supported Pompey. In its eastern section he created a new province: Africa nova, the original Provincia Africa became Africa Vetus (old Africa). The surface area of the two provinces covered approximately the territory of the present-day Tunisia. Mauretania was the primary beneficiary, as it now extended eastwards towards Ampsaga (Waid Rummel, near Constantine). Finally, Caesar gave Sittius the area between the enlarged Mauretania and Africa Nova, and the soldiers of Sittius founded four Roman colonies at Cirta, Rusicade (Skikda, previously known as Philippeville), Chullu (Collo) and Milev (Mila). Other cities founded by Caesar were: Clupea (Kelibia) and Hippo Darrhytus (Bizerte). Mauretania, the most ancient of the Berber States would survive the longest. Bocchus II, the king of Eastern Mauretania, took advantage of the absence of his brother Bogud to seize the kingdom of Ampsaga. Bogud died in 33 BC: Rome did not annex the kingdom of Bocchus II but it was administered by two Roman officials. Octavian - later known as the Emperor Augustus - also founded some Roman colonies, especially in some of the former Phoenician cities such as Saddam (Bejaia, previously known as Bougie) and Cartennae (Ténès). In 29 BC, he even founded a Roman colony called Carthage. Defying religious prohibitions, he established his colony on the accursed territory of the former Punic city. The colony would expand considerably and, at the end of the first century AD, was the most prosperous city of Barbary. In 25 BC, Octavian, having become Augustus, gave Greater Mauretania to Juba II, the grand nephew of the great Masinissa.

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末次通訳事務所・末次賢治拝　Nov.09 2021