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Cleopatra Selene II
Cleopatra Selene II (40 - c. 5 BCE) was a member of the Ptolemaic Dynasty who became the queen of Mauretania upon her marriage to King Juba II of Numidia (48 BCE - 23 CE). Though more obscure than her famous mother, Cleopatra VII (69-30 BCE...

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Marian Reforms
The Marian Reforms were a set of the reforms introduced to the Roman army in the late 2nd century BCE by Roman general and politician Gaius Marius (157-86 BCE). Through these reforms, the Roman army was transformed from a semi-professional...

Definition
The Description of Africa
The Description of Africa is the first comprehensive book about Africa, written by Leo Africanus, an African scholar trained in the Islamic intellectual tradition, in 1526, during the Italian Renaissance. A skillful mixture of anthropology...

Definition
Thugga
Thugga (also Dougga) was a town in North Africa which was first a Numidian and then a Carthaginian settlement before being incorporated into the Roman Empire. The town was built on a strategically favourable limestone hilltop overlooking...

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Sabratha
Sabratha was an ancient port city on the coast of North Africa (in modern-day Libya). The site was originally inhabited by the indigenous Berber Zwagha tribe in the 8th century BCE (according to the 11th-century CE historian al-Bakari) who...

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Elephants in Hellenistic History & Art
Elephants were thought of as fierce and frightful monsters in antiquity, very real though rarely seen until the Hellenistic period. They were deployed on the battlefield to strike terror into the enemy, however, since fear was considered...

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Cleopatra Selene II
Portrait head of Cleopatra Selene II (40 to c. 5 BCE), daughter of the Egyptian queen Cleopatra VII who became the queen of Mauretania upon her marriage to King Juba II of Numidia (48 BCE to 23 CE). Archaeological Museum of Cherchell (Musée...

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Scipio Africanus Freeing Massiva
As described by the Roman historian Livy (1st century BC), the youthful Massiva was the nephew of a prince of Numidia in present-day Algeria who had supported Scipio Africanus (a Roman general so known because of his conquests in North Africa...

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Triumph of Venus Mosaic
The Triumph of Venus mosaic was found at Khenchela (ancient Mascula, a Roman colony in Numidia) in Algeria. Venus is supported by two marine centaurs. Below are a hippocamp, a marine bull, and a fishing scene in which a fisherman lies on...

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Masaesyli in Battle
An artist's impression of the Masaesyli tribe in battle. The Masaesyli were the original inhabitants of the western part of the North African Berber kingdom of Numidia (202-40 BCE). (From the PC game Total War: Rome II - Desert Kingdoms by...