{"id":55496,"date":"2019-10-08T20:59:57","date_gmt":"2019-10-08T18:59:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/imperiumromanum.pl\/ciekawostka\/masinissa-interesting-facts-about-king-of-numidia\/"},"modified":"2020-01-09T14:30:20","modified_gmt":"2020-01-09T13:30:20","slug":"masinissa-interesting-facts-about-king-of-numidia","status":"publish","type":"ciekawostki","link":"https:\/\/imperiumromanum.pl\/en\/curiosities\/masinissa-interesting-facts-about-king-of-numidia\/","title":{"rendered":"Masinissa &#8211; interesting facts about king of Numidia"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Masinissa was the first <a href=\"https:\/\/imperiumromanum.pl\/en\/roman-constitution\/roman-kingdom\/roman-kings\/\">king<\/a> of Numidia (present-day eastern Algeria and western Tunisia) in 202-148 BCE and an important ally of the Romans<sup class=\"footnote\" data-qtip=\"Before 204 BCE he actively contributed on Carthaginians&#039; side.\" data-footid=\"1\">1<\/sup> in the <a href=\"https:\/\/imperiumromanum.pl\/en\/wars\/punic-wars\/second-punic-war\/\">second Punic war<\/a> against Carthage. It was in the <a href=\"https:\/\/imperiumromanum.pl\/en\/battles\/battle-of-zama\/\">battle of Zama<\/a> in 202 BCE that the Numidian cavalry largely determined the defeat of <a href=\"https:\/\/imperiumromanum.pl\/en\/article\/hannibal-barcas-great-enemy-of-romans\/\">Hannibal<\/a>. <!--more--><\/p>\n<p>Masinissa had as a wife, among others a certain Sofonisba &#8211; the daughter of Hasdrubal, a Carthaginian leader. The wedding took place after the victorious battle of Utica in 204 BCE. <a href=\"https:\/\/imperiumromanum.pl\/biografie\/scypion-afrykanski-starszy\/\">Scipio Africanus<\/a> found the relationship dangerous because Sofonisba was the daughter of a fierce enemy of <a href=\"https:\/\/imperiumromanum.pl\/en\/roman-geography\/roman-cities\/rome-eternal-city\/\">Rome<\/a> and forced her ally<sup class=\"footnote\" data-qtip=\"Or Masinissa himself offered his wife poison so that she would not take part in the shameful triumph of the Roman leader.\" data-footid=\"2\">2<\/sup> to send a cup to her newly married wife from poison. Sofonisba drank it without objection.<\/p>\n<p>Interestingly, according to reports, Masinissa was to live over 90 years (he was born around 238 and died 148 BCE). According to <a href=\"https:\/\/imperiumromanum.pl\/en\/biographies\/appian-of-alexandria\/\">Appian<\/a> from Alexandria, Masinissa enjoyed physical fitness until the end of his life, rode a horse, commanded in <a href=\"https:\/\/imperiumromanum.pl\/en\/battles-of-ancient-rome\/\">battles<\/a> and at the age of 86 his last descendant was born &#8211; named Methimannus. His jurisdiction became proverbial and <a href=\"https:\/\/imperiumromanum.pl\/en\/curiosities\/apparently-donuts-were-already-loved-by-ancient-romans\/\">apparently<\/a> he never had less than ten descendants.<\/p>\n<p>After Masinissa&#8217;s death, Numidia was divided into several smaller kingdoms in which his sons ruled.<\/p>\n<p>Finally, it is worth mentioning the parable of Valerius Maximus in <em>De factis dictisque memorabilibus<\/em>. He recalls how one day Greek merchants came to the kingdom of Masinissa with the intention of buying monkeys. When Masinissa found out about it, he was supposed to say: <em>Oh people! Do not your women give birth to children?<\/em><\/p>\n<p class=\"dalej\"><a title=\"Biography of Masinissa\" href=\"https:\/\/imperiumromanum.pl\/biografie\/masynissa\/\">Biography of Masinissa<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":36938,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"kategorie_ciekawostek":[77],"class_list":["post-55496","ciekawostki","type-ciekawostki","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","kategorie_ciekawostek-unknown-facts"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/imperiumromanum.pl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ciekawostki\/55496","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/imperiumromanum.pl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ciekawostki"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/imperiumromanum.pl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/ciekawostki"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/imperiumromanum.pl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ciekawostki\/55496\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/imperiumromanum.pl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/36938"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/imperiumromanum.pl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=55496"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"kategorie_ciekawostek","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/imperiumromanum.pl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/kategorie_ciekawostek?post=55496"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}