Chapter 27: Numidian (nomadic), Masaesyli:
The Numidian, weather the free Masaesyli or the Carthaginian allied Massylii were refereed to as Nomads from Greeks and Carthaginians, witch even in Latin gave them their Name Numidae. Their Territory west of Carthage reached as far as Mauretania on the opposite coast of Hesperia/Iberia. They were a Berber tribe just like the Mauri and the Gaetulians and the Carthaginians often refereed to all of them as Libyans. Thanks to Hanno the Great and his main focus on Africa, there had been many marriages between the upper Carthaginian and Numidian classes, as well as some major cultural and technological exchange and influence.
Many of this later helped Hannibal to integrate Massylii as a province to the Carthagian Republic and the King Masinissa hoped that one day he could annex Masaesyli into a greater Numidian territory or province. On the other side Syphax, the King of Masaesyli had similar plans in creating a greater kingdom by annexing all of Numidia, Mauretania and Carthago Libya into one greater African kingdom. He also hoped for a Roman Invasion of Africa, or an alliance with the Garamantes or other Berber factions to drive the Punic Carthaginians back into the sea where they once came from. Masinissa thanks to the exchange with Carthage hat started combining other minor tribes into a greater Numidian united faction, similar to Masaesyli. But other then their rivals these Numidian not only got the Amazigh people to unite with them but also managed to create a much more urban state with a growing agricultural industry. This later helped Mago's Libyan Strategy against the Masaesyli in the Numidian War (as part of the Second Roman War, much like the Iberian War).
But not all were in favor of Hannibals War against Rome, the Iberian League and the Numidians. Some Carthaginian senators even supported a peace treaty with the Numidians, but there Group was a minority. Their offer mostly failed because populace of Carthage did not want to submit to a people they had traditionally dominated. But Hannibal that wanted to expand these pro-Numidians for his own plans for a future Liby-Greco-Phoenician African empire, much like his Hesperian-Greco-Phoenician state in Hesperia had to make a compromise. The democratic group in the Senat was also against a peace offer to the Numidians and Hannibal needed them to keep other old factions in the Senate opposing him at bay, while at the same time had plans and goals that stood their own. Tensions raised as Senator Hamilcar, Leader of the Democrats tried attacked Syphax sons at a ceasefire negotiation and opposed the former carthaginian enemy Masinissa who he never fully trusted.
Mauri and Berber Tribes:
The Berber, mostly identified as Mauri, the Numidians near Carthage and the Gaetulians were divided into some major groups and even further divided into some minor groups. While the Carthaginian refereed to all of the indigenous population as Libyan in some way or another, but further deciding them into the western Mauri and southern Berber as well as the western and southern Numidians and the eastern Libyans and the southern Garamantes. Over the time the Berber name refereed mostly to these Mauri south of the Carthaginian boarders. But Mauri and Berber alike mostly lived in living in villages, and their peoples both tilled the land and tended herds. The Numidians and Gaetulians on the other hand were less settled, with predominantly pastoral
l elements, and lived in the near south on the margins of the Sahara.For their part, the Phoenicians came from the perhaps most advanced multicultural sphere then existing, the Fertile Crescent. According to Greek, Carthaginian and Greek-Punis writers, the material culture of Phoenicia was likely more functional and efficient, and their knowledge more explanatory, than that of the early Berbers. Hence, the interactions between Berber and Phoenician were often asymmetrical. The Phoenicians worked to keep their cultural cohesion and ethnic solidarity, and continuously refreshed their close connection with Tyre, the mother city.
The earliest Phoenician landing stations located on the coasts were probably meant merely to resupply and service ships bound for the lucrative metals trade with the Iberian/Hesperian peninsula. These newly arrived sea traders were not at first particularly interested in doing much business with the Berbers, for reason of the little profit regarding the goods the Berbers had to offer. The Phoenicians established strategic colonial cities in many Berber areas, including sites outside of the later City of Carthage, settlements like Rusadir, Tingis and many other. As in Tunisia these centres were trading hubs, and later offered support for resource development such as olive oil and Tyrian purple dye. For their part, most Berbers maintained their independence as farmers or semi-pastorals although, due to the exemplar of Carthage, their organized politics and tribal nations increased in scope and acquired sophistication, such like the Numidian and Libyan Kingdoms.
In fact for a time their numerical and military superiority (the best horse riders of that time) enabled some Berber kingdoms to impose a tribute payable by Carthage, a condition that continued till Hanno the Great decidet to attack them to annex land lost to these people in the last wars. Correspondingly, in early Carthage careful attention was given to securing the most favorable treaties with the Berber chieftains, "which included intermarriage between them and the Punic aristocracy." Under Hannos reign even more Carthaginian nobles married Berber nobles and tried to create a stronger, more allied kingdom in all of Libya between all three major powers there.
Eventually the Phoenician trading stations would evolve into permanent settlements, and later into small towns, which would presumably require a wide variety of goods as well as sources of food, which could be satisfied in trade with the Berbers. Yet here too, the Phoenicians probably would be drawn into organizing and directing such local trade, and also into managing agricultural production. In the 5th century BC, Carthage expanded its territory, acquiring Cape Bon and the fertile Wadi Majardah later establishing its control over productive farm lands within several hundred kilometers. Appropriation of such wealth in land by the Phoenicians would surely inspire some resistance by the Berbers, although in warfare, too, the technical training, social organization, and weaponry of the Phoenicians would seem to work against the tribal Berbers.
Lack of contemporary written records make the drawing of conclusions here uncertain, which can only be based on inference and reasonable conjecture about matters of social nuance. Yet it appears that the Phoenicians generally did not interact with the Berbers as economic equals, but employed their agricultural labor, and their household services, whether by hire or indenture; many became sharecroppers. For a period the Berbers were in constant revolt. In 396 there was a great uprising. "Thousands of rebels streamed down from the mountains and invaded Punic territory, carrying the serfs of the countryside along with them. The Carthaginians were obliged to withdraw within their walls and were besieged." Yet the Berbers lacked cohesion, and although 200,000 strong at one point they succumbed to hunger; their leaders were offered bribes; "they gradually broke up and returned to their homes." Thereafter, "a series of revolts took place among the Libyans [Berbers] from the fourth century onwards."
The Berbers had become involutary 'hosts' to the settlers from the east, and obliged to accept the Punic dominance of Carthage for many centuries. The Berbers belonged to the lower social class when in Punic society. Nonetheless, therein they persisted largely unassimilated, as a separate, submerged entity, as a culture of mostly passive urban and rural poor within the civil structures created by Punic rule. In addition, and most importantly, the Berber peoples also formed quasi-independent satellite societies along the steppes of the frontier and beyond, where a minority continued as free 'tribal republics'. While benefiting from Punic material culture and political-military institutions, these peripheral Berbers (mostly called Libyans) maintained their own identity, culture and traditions, continued to develop their own agricultural and village skills, while living with the newcomers from the east in an asymmetric symbiosis.
As the centuries passed there naturally grew a Punic society of Phoenician-descent but born in Africa, called Libyo-Phoenicians. This term later came to be applied also to Berbers acculturated to urban Phoenician culture. Yet the whole notion of a Berber apprenticeship to the Punic civilization has been called an exaggeration sustained by a point of view fundamentally foreign to the Berbers.There evolved a population of mixed ancestry, Berber and Punic and the politics of Hanno the Great increased their numbers. There would develop recognized niches in which Berbers had proven their utility. For example, the Punic state began to field Berber Numidian cavalry under their commanders on a regular basis. The Berbers eventually were required to provide soldiers (at first "unlikely" paid "except in booty"), which by the fourth century BC became "the largest single element in the Carthaginian army".
Yet in times of stress at Carthage, when a foreign force might be pushing against the city-state, some Berbers would see it as an opportunity to advance their interests, given their otherwise low status in Punic society. Thus, when the Greeks under Agathocles (361-289 BC) of Sicily landed at Cape Bon and threatened Carthage (in 310 BC), there were Berbers under Ailymas who went over to the invading Greeks. Also, during the long Second Roman War and later Between the Third Roman War some Berbers joined with the invading Roman generals against Hannibal and his allies. On the other hand, the Berber Kings also supported Carthage. Hannibal once in power over Carthage read these cues, so that he cultivated his Libyan, Numidic, Berber and Hesperian alliances and, subsequently, favored these who advanced their interests following the Carthagian victory and way of living.
Hannibal also lowered the taxation and tributes given by these native Libyan people, to look less greedy and cruel then Hanno the Great and lowered these tributes from a half, to one-quarter. Following the Mercenary War and the Second Roman War (mostly the Numidian War as a part of it) the tensions between Carthage and the indigenous population once again grew in some areas of northwest africa. Hannibal tried to counter insurrections by binding these people more towards Carthage trough culture and trade, much like the Rome with the Italians. Yet Rome and the Italians held far more in common perhaps than did Carthage and the Berbers. So Hannibal and Mago founded colonies, settled veterans and promote the common, shared quality of "life in a properly organized city" that inspires loyalty, particularly with regard to the Berbers that were friendly, allied or neutral to them. Over time these cultural influence and lower tributes would help increasing the relationship. Hannibals goal of creating a more equal development of material culture and social organization in his state helped to build the new base of future Carthaginian politics in Africa. Hannibal promoted the success Hanno the Great had already made and hoped that Mauri, Numidians, Libyans would sooner or later melting into a Libio-Greco-Punic ethnic. To archive this goal he used good friends and allies to promote more exchange, trade, friendship and even creating new families between these people under his rule.
The Garamantes:
The Garamantes, along with the Numidian enemies and the Mauri were Hannibals major concern in Africa so far. He knew he could hold of a Roman Invasion as long as he could take the war to Italy and focus Romans main armies there. They lived in the south of Libya/Africa and the southwest of the Carthaginian province of Libya. They were a local power since 500 BC and the Cartaginian loss in the Mercenary War and the secession of Libya further strengthened the Garamantes even further. Like some Numidian tribes, the rich trans-Saharan trade from the coast to the center of the known Libya was in their hands. They were one of the major reasons Hannibal wanted to send more expeditions down the coast to bypass their trade monopoly by contacts to the Mande and other tribes. So the prosper trade with salt, slaves, cloth, beads, nuts and metal goods could benefit Carthage.
New colonies along the coast were already planned in the next years, similar to those in Gaul and Breton for the Carthaginian trade there. While Hesperia provided gold, wood, tin, pottery, horses, lead, silver, cattle, wine, olives and amber, the Libyan holdings of Carthage gave Hannibals Nation access to wood, marmot, grain, horses, cattle and Tyrian purple dye. He used new found colonies along the rivers of Mulucha, Suber and Chylemain to increase his trading influence and garrisons in these areas, as well as getting better access to these southern lands as well as a military foothold.
Unlike the Numidians the Garamantes were much more adapted to warfare, they not only who herded cattle, farmed dates, and hunted in the desert, they also fought from four-horse chariots, a tactic Hannibal would later adapt. They were much darker than the Nubians or Mauri and they beard ritual scars and tattoos that made them evil desert spirits in the eyes of many coastal Libyan tribes. Their unified Garamantian kingdom covered 180,000 square kilometers and Hannibal feared their raids on his coastal lands, or that they could even ally with these Numidians still fighting against him in Libya. What also interested Hannibal was the fairly good agricultural land that just like similar territory in Numidia, Mauretania and Libya was of major Interest for the future plans he had with Carthage and his agricultural, material and economic independence and once more dominance over the western Mediterranean.
