Region
Numidia
Badès
Listen to the story
Of Numidia, the land west of Carthage's old territory in what is now eastern Algeria, the map keeps only three red letters, D, I and A, spread far apart across the country. The first four letters are simply gone, which scholars call remarkable carelessness by the copyist. If they were spaced like the survivors, the lost N stood close to the name of the Numidian people. Greek writers heard 'nomads' in the name. The letters interlock with those of the province of Africa, so Numidia appears as part of it, as it was until Septimius Severus made it a province of its own.