Gulussa was the second legitimate son of

Masinissa Masinissa ( nxm, , ''MSNSN''; ''c.'' 238 BC – 148 BC), also spelled Massinissa, Massena and Massan, was an ancient Numidian king best known for leading a federation of Massylii Berber tribes during the Second Punic War (218–201 BC), ulti ...

. Gulussa became the King of Numidia along with his two brothers around 148 BC and reigned as part of a triumvirate for about three years.

Biography

In 148 BC, Masinissa, feeling that he was near death, consulted with

Scipio Aemilianus Publius Cornelius Scipio Africanus Aemilianus (185–129 BC), known as Scipio Aemilianus or Scipio Africanus the Younger, was a Roman general and statesman noted for his military exploits in the Third Punic War against Carthage and during the ...

regarding the settlement of his state. Resuscitating, perhaps, a Libyan custom which shared the authority between three persons, Scipio Aemilianus established the three legitimate surviving sons as kings:

Micipsa Micipsa (Numidian: MKWSN; , ; died BC) was the eldest legitimate son of Masinissa, the King of Numidia, a Berber kingdom in North Africa. Micipsa became the King of Numidia in 148 BC. Early life In 151 BC, Masinissa sent Micipsa and his brother ...

, Gulussa and

Mastanabal Mastanabal (Numidian: MSTNB , ) was one of three legitimate sons of Masinissa, the King of Numidia, a Berber kingdom in, present day Algeria, North Africa. The three brothers were appointed by Scipio Aemilianus Africanus Publius Cornelius ...

. The royal power was divided among the three princes. Micipsa, the eldest, was in charge of the administration; it was to him that Masinissa had given his ring which, judging from the stelae of the Abizar style, was a sign of power. Gulussa was given the command of the armies. As for Mastanabal, who was said to have been instructed in

Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...

, he was charged with justice, and relations with vassal tribal leaders.

War with Carthaginians

Gulussa already had a solid experience of war. He had the opportunity to prove his worth by fighting the

Carthaginians The Punic people, or western Phoenicians, were a Semitic people in the Western Mediterranean who migrated from Tyre, Phoenicia to North Africa during the Early Iron Age. In modern scholarship, the term ''Punic'' – the Latin equivalent of the ...

. In the spring of 150 BC, he and Micipsa led an embassy to the Carthaginian authorities. But the Carthaginians, exasperated by the successive annexations of Masinissa, refused to enter into negotiations and even ambushed the princes on their return from Carthage. This action by the Carthaginians gave the Numidians the excuse to resume the fighting and they seized the Carthaginian city of Oroscopa. The fighting then served as a pretext for Rome to intervene in the region. Gulussa and his troops participated in the Battle of Carthage (148 BC).

Later life

After the settlement of 148 BC, there is no further information on Gulussa or Mastanabal. Nothing is known about the dates of their deaths and the end of the triumviral reign. It can be deduced from the dedication of the temple of Massinissa in Dougga that by 139 BC Micipsa reigned alone over Numidia.

Bibliography

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Sources

* {{s-end 2nd-century BC rulers in Africa 2nd-century BC Berber people Foreign relations of ancient Rome Kings of Numidia