very noble city, the ornament of the Hither Spain, and celebrated for the long war of 20 years which it maintained against the Romans. The inhabitants obtained some advantage over the Roman forces, till Scipio Africanus was empowered to finish the war, and to effect the destruction of Numantia. The town occupied an eminence of great steepness, and was approachable only on one side. Scipio began the siege with an army of 60,000 men, and was bravely opposed by the besieged, who were no more than 4000 men able to bear arms. They held out against the enemy with the most indomitable courage while their provisions lasted; but being reduced to desperation, they set fire to their houses, and destroyed themselves, so that not even one remained to adorn the triumph of the conqueror. It was taken by the Romans 134 B.C., and the conqueror obtained the surname of Numanticus. It is conjectured that the modern Puente de Garay, near Soria, marks the site nearly of this once famous city. Fragments of antiquity are occasionally dug up there. (Accounts of this memorable siege are to be found in Appian, B. Hisp. 48, &c.; Eutropius, iv.; Cicero, De Off.; Strabo, iii.; also in the Compendio Historiae, b. iii., of Pedro Tutor y Melo, Soria, 1690.)

Numbers, Book of. See Pentateuch.

Numerals. See Arithmetic.

Numarianus, Marcus Aurelius, a Roman emperor, succeeded to the purple conjointly with his elder brother Carinus, on the death of his father Carus, A.D. 284, Numidia, and was murdered in the same year, after a reign of eight months. (See Roman History.)