Before the Pheonicians, Greeks and Romans expanding their control throughout the Mediterranean, the natives of North Africa were ruled by kings. They are commonly referred to as African kings. Although, the borders as we know today were quite fluid back then, there were distinctions among the peoples of the Northern part of the continent. The part corresponding to today’s Morocco extended from the Atlantic coast to the River Moulouya. Over it reigned kings we do not know much of. The inscriptions found today from this era are in Lybic, a language still undeciphered to this day. The people lived in a tribal organisation and some of the names of the tribes were recorded later in peace alters in latin. The most famous are those discovered in Volubilis in the southern Limes of Mauritania Tingitania showing the name “Baquates” (BAQVATIVM). Other names are the Bavares, the Mecenites, and the Autolols. The Mecenites are thought to be the ancestors for the Medieval tribe Meknassa the founders of the modern city of Meknes.
In Shallah, information about the tribe or tribes founding it are scarce. The site was founded in the 2nd or 1st century BCE by the name of SHELT. It is a name attested on rare specimens of coinage. Because the Roman features of city were preserved and not a big percentage of the site was excavated, especially not beyond the Medieval walls, only a few buildings were recognized and dated. We know of a deposit building near the Roman arch of Triumph, a Mauretanian temple at the forum, and the bases of Mauretanian buildings underneath the Roman Basilica.
It is thought that city of Shelt served also as a Phoenician post thanks to a shard of pottery found in excavation and the interpretation of a building technique in the Artisanal Quarter. But these remain hypothesis not yet proven.
The end of the rule of the African Kingdoms on North-West Africa was with the king Juba. After his death, his son Juba II was taken to Rome and raised as a prince, and so was Cleopatra Selene the daughter of Cleopatra and Marc Anthony. They were married by the Roman authorities and sent back to Numidia to rule over it. They ruled in the name of Rome but took their revenge subtly for the murder of their parents. Their revenge was in the messages they struck on coins and the name they chose for their son: Ptolemy. During the reign of Ptolemy he was summoned to Rome by the infamous Roman Emperor Caligula, his cousin, to assist to the celebration for his birthday were he was publicly assassinated for wearing such an impressive purple mantle in the presence of the emperor.
