Few people know that Numidian cavalry played a decisive role in breaking Hannibal at Zama, fighting alongside Roman cavalry. That kingdom was Numidia, and for roughly two centuries it occupied what’s now Algeria, playing Rome and Carthage off each other with real nerve.
Poisoned queens, bribed senators, and a king who married Cleopatra’s daughter. It’s all in there, and almost none of it survives into the standard textbook version of the ancient Mediterranean, which treats North Africa as scenery for the Punic Wars rather than a place with its own politics and its own body count.
Here are ten reasons that need fixing.
