Vaga, Vecca and lately Theodorias is an ancient city in Tunisia built by the Berbers and ruled sequentially by the Carthaginians, the Numidians, the Romans, the Vandals and the Byzantines until it was captured by the Arabs who changed its name to the present day Béja. The town was the capital of the Numidian Kingdom during the rule of Jugurtha.
The origins of the city and the Phoenician rule
Little is known about the date of the foundation of Vaga, but it was certainly before the foundation of Carthage. The site of the current city was inhabited by Berber tribes, notably the Avrigha tribe, and when the Phoenicians started building trading posts throughout the country, Vaga was one of them. After that, Carthage, fortified the city with a fortress and put a garrison in it to strengthen its presence in the region,
Vaga through the First and Second Punic Wars
The city played an important role in the First Punic War because of its strong fortifications that stopped the Roman consul and general Marcus Atilius Regulus in his attempt to conquer the Carthaginian cities in the region. This was without doubt a decisive factor in the failure of the Africa campaign that Regulus led and later his capture. Despite this, Carthage lost the war. The loyalty of Vaga to Carthage continued during the Second Punic War, as in 218 BC the city sent a strong contingent to the army of Hannibal in Iberia to help him in his preparations to invade Italy. And in 201 BC, Vaga resisted an attack from the Numidian king Massinissa who was en route to Carthage to join the troops of Scipio Africanus. To reward him for standing with her in the war against Carthage, Rome gave to Massinissa the ancient provinces of his ancient rival Syphax within them the territories of Vaga, but the town stayed under the rule of the Carthaginians who maintained a strong garrison in it.
The Third Punic War
In 146 BC, the Third Punic War ends, Carthage is burned by the Roman general Scipio Aemilianus. The ancient Carthaginian territories become the Roman province of Africa, and Vaga finally falls into the hands of the Numidian Kingdom. It was before a de jure Numidian territory and came officially under Numidian rule.
Vaga before and during the Jugurthine War
Vaga, city of Roman influence and Jugurthine affiliation
The Roman influence
While the city was in the hands of the Numidians, Vaga still had some independence but under the surveillance of the Roman consuls who controlled Carthage. After the period of peace that followed the Third Punic War and the annihilation of the Carthaginian power, Rome began a campaign of peaceful assimilation of her new province of Africa and its environs. Among her methods in this assimilation was sending colonists and even merchants to implant the Roman civilization and the use of the Latin language in African soil. Vaga was one of the targets, where many colonists and merchants settled, thus increasing the number of Roman citizens living in the city.
Vaga: Capital of Jugurtha
In 118 BC, Micipsa, the king of Numidia and son of Massinissa died, and the Kingdom was shared by his two sons Hiempsal, Adherbal and their half-brother Jugurtha. Jugurtha took the eastern parts of the kingdom and established his government in the city of Vaga, but he wasn't pleased with this situation; he didn't want to see his nation divided in this way, so he assassinated Hiempsal, but he failed to kill Adherbal who escaped to Rome and gained the protection of the Roman Senate which divided the kingdom between him and Jugurtha. Wanting to reign alone, Jugurtha brought together an army in Vaga and started a war against his half-brother Adherbal. The latter was besieged in Cirta, where he was massacred with his partisans by Jugurtha in 112 BC. Rome used this action as a casus belli to declare on Jugurtha.