Nŭmĭdia

, an inland country of Africa, which now forms the kingdom of Algiers and Bildulgerid . It was bounded on the north by the Mediterranean sea, south by Gætulia, west by Mauri tan i a, and east by a part of Libya, which was called Africa Propria. The inhabitants were called Nomades , and afterwards Numidæ . It was the kingdom of Masini a, which was the occasion of the third Punic war, on account of the offence which he had received from the Cart hag in i ans. Jugurtha reigned there, as also Juba the father and son. It was conquered, and became a Roman province, of which Sallust was the first governor. The Numidians were excellent warriors, and in their expeditions they always endeavoured to engage with the enemy in the night-time. They rode without saddles or bridles, whence they have been called infræni . They had their wives in common, as the rest of the barbarian nations of antiquity. Sallust , Jugurthine War .— Florus , bk. 2 , ch. 15 .— Strabo , bks. 2 & 17.— Mela , bk. 1 , ch. 4 , . — Ovid , Metamorphoses , bk. 15 , li. 754 .