Carthage and its dependencies, governed by a…

Carthage and its dependencies, governed by a mercantile oligarchy, cultivate good relations with the Berber tribes in the hinterland, but the city-state is essentially a maritime power whose expansion along the western Mediterranean coast draws it into a confrontation with Rome in the third century BCE.

Defeated in the long Punic Wars (264-241 and 218-201 BCE), Carthage had been reduced by Rome to the status of a small and vulnerable African state at the mercy of the Berbers.

Fear of a Carthaginian revival, however, leads Rome to renew the war, and Carthage was destroyed in 146 BCE.

Tripolitania had been assigned to Rome's ally, the Berber king of Numidia.

A century later, Julius Caesar deposes the reigning Numidian king, who had sided with Pompey (Roman general and statesman, rival of Julius Caesar) in the Roman civil wars, and annexes his extensive territory to Rome, organizing Tripolitania as a Roman province.