HKB
Spain only by a strait, they proceeded to open an intercourse with its inhabitants. The name of Medes the Libyans gradually corrupted, changing it, in their barbarous tongue, into Moors.[74]
Of the Persians[75] the power rapidly increased; and at length, the children, through excess of population, separating from the parents, they took possession, under the name of Numidians, of those regions bordering on Carthage which are now called Numidia. In process of time, the two parties,[76] each assisting the other, reduced the neighboring tribes, by force or fear, under their sway; but those who had spread toward our sea, made the greater conquests: for the Lybians are less warlike than the Getulians[77] At last nearly all lower Africa[78] was occupied by the Numidians; and all the conquered tribes were merged in the nation and name of their conquerors.
XIX. At a later period, the Phoenicians, some of whom wished to lessen their numbers at home, and others, ambitious of empire, engaged the populace, and such as were eager for change, to follow them, founded Hippo,[79] Adrumetum, Leptis,[80] and other cities, on the sea-coast; which, soon growing powerful, became partly a support, and partly an honor, to their parent state. Of Carthage I think it better to be silent, than to say but little; especially as time bids me hasten to other matters.
Next to the Catabathmos,[81] then, which divides Egypt from Africa, the first city along the sea-coast[82] is Cyrene, a colony of Theraeans;[83] after which are the two Syrtes,[84] with Leptis[85] between them; then the Altars of the Philaeni,[86] which the Carthaginians considered the boundary of their dominion on the side of Egypt; beyond these are the other Punic towns. The other regions, as far as Mauretania, the Numidians occupy; the Moors are nearest to Spain. To the south of Numidia,[87] as we are informed, are the Getulians, of whom some live in huts, and others lead a vagrant and less civilized life; beyond these are the Ethiopians; and further on, regions parched by the heat of the sun.
At the time of the Jugurthine war, most of the Punic towns, and the territories which Carthage had lately possessed,[88] were under the government of Roman praetors; a great part of the Getulians, and Numidia as far as the river Mulucha, were subject to Jugurtha; while the whole of the Moors were governed by Bocchus, a king who knew nothing of the Romans but their name, and who, before this period, was as little known to us, either in war or peace. Of Africa and its inhabitants I have now said all that my narrative requires.