Massiva
2. Son of Gulussa, and grandson of Masinissa. Having taken part with Adherbal in his disputes with Jugurtha, he fled to Rome after the capture of Cirta and death of Adherbal (B. C. 112). When Jugurtha himself came to Rome in B. C. 108, Massiva was induced by the unfavorable disposition of the senate towards that monarch, and by the instigations of the consul Sp. Albinus, to put in his own claim to the kingdom of Numidia. Jugurtha, alarmed at his pretensions, determined to rid himself of his rival, and, through the agency of his minister Bomilcar, succeeded in effecting the assassination of Massiva. (Sal. Jug. 35; Liv. Epit. lxiv.; Florus, 3.2.)
From William Smith (ed.), Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology. Text provided under a CC BY-SA license by Perseus Digital Library, http://www.perseus.tufts.edu, with funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities and Tufts University. Data accessed from https://github.com/PerseusDL/canonical-pdlrefwk/ on 17 October 2026.