Masissa

Masissa, king of the Eastern Numidians, was born about 238 B.C., and brought up at Carthage. Having helped the Carthaginians to subdue Syphax, king of the Massylii or Western Numidians, he accompanied his allies to Spain and fought valiantly and successfully against the Romans. But about 210 the Carthaginians gave his promised bride to Syphax; and for this and other reasons he became henceforward the bitter foe of Carthage, and zealously backed up the Romans in their struggle against their African rival. He received as his reward the kingdom of Syphax, together with large portions of the territory of Carthage. But before he died, in 149 B.C., he saw that he had fostered a most dangerous enemy for his own people, the Massylii, and the kingdom he left to his sons, and slackened his zeal for Rome.