1Africa was originally held by the Gaetulians and the Libyans, rough and uncivilised peoples, whose food was the flesh of wild beasts and the grass of the ground, like cattle. 2They were governed neither by customs nor by law or the rule of anyone: wandering and straying, they had as their homes whatever places night had forced on them. 3But after Hercules died in Spain, as the Africans believe, his army, made up of various peoples, having lost its leader, with many on all sides each seeking command for himself, soon broke up. 4Of that number the Medes, Persians and Armenians, carried across to Africa in ships, occupied the places nearest our sea, but the Persians lay more towards the Ocean, and they used the upturned hulls of their ships as huts, because there was neither timber in the land nor any chance of buying or bartering with the Spaniards: a wide sea and an unknown language prevented trade.
7These gradually mingled with the Gaetulians through intermarriage and, because, trying out the land, they had often moved from one place to another, they called themselves Nomads. 8And to this day the dwellings of the rustic Numidians, which they call mapalia, are oblong, with curved sides and roofed over like the keels of ships. 9The Medes and Armenians, on the other hand, were joined by the Libyans — for these lived nearer the African sea, while the Gaetulians were more under the sun, not far from the burning heat — and these early had towns; 9for, being separated from Spain only by the strait, they had begun to trade with each other.
10The Libyans gradually corrupted their name, calling them in their barbarous tongue Mauri instead of Medes. 11But the power of the Persians soon grew, and afterwards under the name of Numidians, having separated from their parents because of their numbers, they took possession of those parts nearest Carthage which are called Numidia. 12Then both peoples, relying on each other, forced their neighbours under their rule by arms or by fear, and won a name and glory for themselves, especially those who had advanced towards our sea, because the Libyans were less warlike than the Gaetulians. 12In the end most of the lower part of Africa came into the possession of the Numidians, and all the conquered were absorbed into the race and name of their rulers.