Numidia - Numidia (English spelling)

The name given in the ancient Roman world to the kingdom of the Massyli, who ruled western North Africa in the 3rd and 1st centuries BC. By extension, it is also the name of the central part of the kingdom. The indigenous people of ancient North Africa are said to have spoken a language similar to the Berber languages ​​currently found throughout North Africa, and the Massyli were one of them. Berber society reached the stage of settling and cultivating crops as early as the 2nd millennium BC, and in the first half of the 1st millennium BC, under the influence of Phoenician colonization, especially the founding of Carthage, kingships emerged in various places, but these were mostly under the hegemony of Carthage until the Punic Wars, and were content to be a source of military power for the city. During the Second Punic War, when Rome sought an alliance with the Berber kingdoms to counter Carthage, the Massinissa family of the Massili allied with them, defeating and annexing the kingdom of the Masaesyli to the west, which was said to be the most powerful at the time.The Numidian kingdom regnum Numidiae was established (202 BC) with its capital at Cirta (present-day Constantine?).

From the beginning, the Numidian kingdom played the role of a bridgehead for Rome's advance into North Africa as an ally of Rome, and was one of the factors that started the Third Punic War, but on the other hand, domestically, based on grain production in the royal territory, it built a ruling system modeled on the Hellenistic kingdoms through control of Phoenician cities and exchanges with the eastern Greek world, marking an era. However, after the fall of Carthage and the establishment of the Roman province of Africa (146 BC), the kingship became more dependent on Rome as Roman and Italian businessmen infiltrated the country, and Jugurtha's attempt to seize power by uniting various classes that opposed this collapsed due to Roman military intervention (111 BC-105 BC), and thereafter it became a completely puppet kingship. During the civil war at the end of the Roman Republic, the last king of Numidia, Juba I, sided with Pompey and was defeated and killed, and most of the Numidian territory was made a province by Caesar (46 BC), leading to the demise of the kingdom. Remains of tombs and temples from the Numidian period remain in various parts of Tunisia and Algeria today, and the great circular tomb at Medracen, believed to belong to the Mashree royal family, is particularly famous.

[Nobuko Kurita]

Source: Shogakukan Encyclopedia Nipponica About Encyclopedia Nipponica Information | Legend

紀元前3～前1世紀に、北アフリカ西部を支配したマッシュリーMassyli人の王国の古代ローマ世界における通称。転じて、王国中央部をさす地名。古代北アフリカの原住民は、現在北アフリカ各地に分布するベルベル系諸言語と同系の言語を話したとされ、マッシュリー人もその一派である。ベルベル社会は早くも前二千年紀には定住・農耕の段階に達し、前一千年紀前半にはフェニキア人の植民、とりわけカルタゴ建国の影響下で、各地に王権の発生をみるに至ったが、これらはポエニ戦争期まではおおむねカルタゴの覇権下にあり、その軍事力供給源に甘んじた。第二次ポエニ戦争の際、ローマがカルタゴへの対抗上ベルベル諸王権との同盟を求めると、これと結んだマッシュリーの王族マシニッサMassinissaは当時最強といわれた西隣のマサエシュリーMasaesyli人の王国を打倒・併合し、ここにキルタCirta（現在のコンスタンティーヌ市？）を首都とするヌミディア王国regnum Numidiaeが成立（前202）する。

　ヌミディア王権は当初よりローマの同盟者としてローマの北アフリカ進出の橋頭堡(きょうとうほ)の役割を演じ、第三次ポエニ戦争開戦の要因ともなるが、反面、国内では王領地での穀物生産を基礎に、フェニキア系都市支配、東方ギリシア世界との交流などを通じてヘレニズム諸王国に範をとった支配体制を構築し、一時代を画した。しかしカルタゴ滅亡、ローマの属州アフリカ設置（前146）後は、ローマ・イタリア人事業家の浸透とともに、王権の対ローマ従属性が深まり、これに反発する諸階層を結集したユグルタJugurthaの政権掌握の試みもローマの軍事介入（前111～前105）により崩壊して、以後はまったくの傀儡(かいらい)王権と化した。ローマ共和政末期の内乱の際、ヌミディア最後の王ユバJuba1世はポンペイウス派にくみして敗死し、遺領の大半がカエサルにより属州化（前46）されて、王国は滅亡する。ヌミディア時代の墳墓・神殿などの遺構は現在チュニジアおよびアルジェリア各地に残存し、マッシュリー王家のものとされるメドラセンMedracenの円形大墳墓はとくに有名である。

［栗田伸子］

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