Syphax

Syphax was king of the Masaesyli, the western Numidians, and the man whose change of sides nearly cost Rome the African campaign and then did cost Carthage the war. Numidia was not one kingdom but two, and the rivalry between his people and the eastern Massyli under Masinissa is the axis of the whole story. He fought Carthage in the 210s and took Roman envoys and a Roman military adviser, which made him the more attractive of the two Numidian kings from Rome's point of view. Scipio crossed from Spain to meet him personally at his court, and by one famous account dined at the same table as Hasdrubal Gisco while both men were courting him. Carthage won that competition by marrying him to Hasdrubal's daughter Sophonisba, and Syphax took the Carthaginian side, drove Masinissa out of his own kingdom, and brought perhaps 50,000 men to the war. In 203 BC Scipio's men burned his camp and Hasdrubal's on the same night, killing enormous numbers in the confusion, and beat the rebuilt armies at the Great Plains soon after. Syphax was pursued into his own territory, defeated at Cirta, and captured when his horse threw him. He was paraded in Rome and died in captivity at Tibur before the triumph. His kingdom went to Masinissa, whose unified Numidia then spent fifty years taking Carthaginian territory with Roman protection until Carthage finally fought back and gave Rome its pretext for the third war. Syphax is therefore one of the pivots of the second Punic war without ever having fought a battle Rome remembered. He is also the reason Masinissa mattered: had he stayed loyal to Rome, the eastern Numidians would have had no opening, and the kingdom that inherited North Africa would have been his.

• Lived: 250 BCE – 202 BCE
• Nationality: Numidian
• Roles: monarch, military_leader