ABOUT THE BAND

Numidia is a musical meeting between musicians from USA and Algeria. This is about the traditional and popular music from Tamazgha or North Africa.

Numidia is the ancient name given to Algeria. Numidia was an ancient Berber kingdom in North Africa that later became a Roman province, and is no longer in existence today. It was located on the eastern coast of modern day Algeria, bordered by the Roman province of Mauritania (west coast of modern Algeria) to the west, the Roman province of Africa (modern day Tunisia) to the east, the Mediterranean Sea to the north, and the Sahara Desert to the south.

The name Numidia was first applied by Polybius and other historians during the 3rd century BC to indicate the territory west of Carthage, including the entire Maghreb as far as the river Mulucha (Muluya), about 100 miles west of Oran. The Numidians were conceived of as two great tribal groups: the Massyli in eastern Numidia, and the Massaesyli in the west. At the time of the Second Punic War the eastern tribes took the side of the Romans, whereas the Massaesyli supported the Carthaginians. At the end of the war the victorious Romans gave all of Numidia to Massinissa (died 148 BC) of the Massaesyli, whose territory extended from Mauretania to the boundary of the Carthaginian territory, and also southeast as far as Cyrenaica, so that Numidia entirely surrounded Carthage (Appian, Punica, 106) except towards the sea.

After the death of Jugurtha (106 BC) as a Roman captive, western Numidia was added to the lands of Bocchus, king of Mauretania, while the remainder (excluding Cyrene and its locality) continued to be governed by native princes until the civil war between Caesar and Pompey. After Cato the Younger was defeated by Caesar, he committed suicide (46 BC) in Utica, and Numidia became briefly the province of Africa Nova until Augustus restored Juba II (son of Juba I) after the Battle of Actium.