Masinissa

Born around 238 BC to a Numidian chieftain allied with Carthage, Masinissa fought for them in the Second Punic War until he concluded Rome would win and changed sides. With Roman backing he united the eastern and western Numidian tribes into a single kingdom, fought at Zama in 202 BC in the battle that broke Carthage, and allowed his wife Sophonisba - a Carthaginian noblewoman who'd worked against him - to take poison rather than face Roman triumph. Over 54 years he expanded Numidia into the dominant power in northwest Africa, deliberately provoking Carthage into the war that ended in its total destruction in 146 BC. He led troops until his death at 90, fathered 44 sons, and transformed land the Greeks had written off as barren into what would become Rome's breadbasket. Polybius called him "the best man of all the kings of our time."