SYPHAX

flourished 3rd century BC Numidian king allied with the Carthaginians under Hannibal. Syphax was defeated and captured at the Battle of the Great Plains near Utica, in what is now Tunisia (203), by the Roman commander Gaius Laelius in Scipio Africanus' campaign of the Second Punic War. Syphax had earlier (c. 206) expelled his rival Masinissa, who subsequently ruled much of North Africa with Roman support.