Ill] AND HISTORIC TIMES 309 



the native breeds of Central and Upper Italy, and I have shown 

 on an earlier page that in 218 B.C. the horses of the Roman 

 cavalry were superior to those of the Gauls of Northern Italy. 



We have already seen that from the outset of the Second 

 Punic War the Roman cavalry was inferior to the Numidian 

 and Spanish horsemen in Hannibal's army, and it is highly 

 suggestive that as soon as Scipio conceived the idea of carrying 

 war into Spain, his first care was to secure the alliance of 

 Syphax, the Numidian king, and to enter into relations with 

 the Masaesylian Massinissa. Indeed it was in no small degree 

 to the aid of the latter, who joined Scipio with a few followers 

 when that general landed in Africa in 204 B.C., that the Romans 

 were ultimately successful in the closing scene of the drama 

 which culminated in the battle of Zama (B.C. 202). 



" The Romans made a province of that part of the country 

 which had been subject to Carthage, and made over the rest 

 to the rule of Masanasses (Massinissa) and his descendants, 

 beginning with Micipsa. For the Romans paid particular 

 attention to Masanasses on account of his great abilities and 

 friendship for them, for he it was that formed the nomads to 

 civil life and directed their attention to husbandry, and he 

 taught them to be soldiers instead of robbers 1 ." During the 

 years that intervened between Zama and the final destruction 

 of the hapless city Massinissa and his Numidians effectually 

 kept Carthage from regaining anything of her ancient power. 



Before Massinissa died (B.C. 141) he had so extended his 

 kingdom that it completely enveloped the Roman province, since 

 it reached even as far as the western Syrtis, and exceeded both in 

 extent and population the territory ruled by Carthage, even in 

 the zenith of her power. Carthage once destroyed, the Romans 

 began to look with alarm upon the kingdom of Numidia, with 

 its vast hordes of swift horsemen. On Massinissa's death Scipio 

 Aemilianus had constrained his three sons to share the kingdom, 

 but as two of them soon died, the whole had lapsed to the 

 survivor Micipsa. This able man improved his father's capital 

 Cirta (Constantineh), and established there a colony of Greeks, 

 arid he raised it to such importance that it could put in the 



1 Strabo, 832. 



