to facilitate control over dependent territories. Consequently, Carthage's militaristic expansionism from the late sixth century BC may also have caused the formation of larger and stronger competing Libyan polities as a response to this pressure.

By the time of the Second Punic War in 218 BC, the previously scattered Numidian tribes had consolidated into two great and rival tribal groups: the Massylii in eastern Numidia, and the Masaesyli