Numidia was a kingdom, located in North Africa on the Medeterranean Sea, in modern Algeria. The kingdom had varying relations with Rome. Its greatest king was Massinissa, who greatly assisted the Romans in their war against Carthage. His reward was to be given the lions share of the work of guarding the frontier against wild Berbers and other nomads.

Massinissa divided his kingdom among his sons on his death in 148 BC. A son of one of them, Jugurtha, seized the entire territory from the others in 118; this brought him into conflict with the Romans. Under Marius they outlasted Jugurtha the Briber, whose most notable saying was that Rome was corrupt, and ready to be sold to anyone with enough ready cash.

King Jugurtha was captured by the Romans in 105 BC, as described by Sallust. This event is commemorated in Republican denarii of Faustus Cornelius Saulla, son of the victorious general, in 56 BC. The kingdom was turned over to someone more tractable.

The country rose against the Romans again, under Juba I, Jugurthas great-nephew, in support of Pompey the Great. Caesar eliminated the Pompeians after coming very close to defeat, by winning a victory at Thapsus. Caesar set up a province there, which Sallust administered as one of its first governors. Eventually it was given to Jubas son Juba II in 30 BC; it returned to Roman provincial rule when Juba was made king of Mauretania.

Numidia remained Roman with few important incidents until the Vandals under Gaiseric invaded in 429, when they rapidly overran the province.