People
Numidarum
Thubursicum Numidarum (Barrington) · Kemissa (Miller)
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Numidarum means 'of the Numidians', the Libyan people of the uplands in what is now eastern Algeria. The Roman historian Sallust says they gave themselves this name because they kept moving from one region to another in search of farmland, and the Greeks heard in it their word for wanderers. Prized by Rome for their cavalry, they also lent their name to the town of Thubursicum Numidarum, today Khamissa in Algeria. The entry probably dates to the third century and may mark the bounds of the province of Numidia created by Septimius Severus, or else the military district set up earlier under Caligula.