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Gaetuli was the Romanised name of an ancient Berbers people inhabiting Getulia. The latter district covered the large desert region south of the Atlas Mountains, bordering the Sahara. Other documents place Gaetulia in pre-Roman Empire times along the Mediterranean coasts of what is now Algeria and Tunisia, and north of the Atlas. During the Roman period, according to Pliny the Elder, the Autololes Gaetuli established themselves south of the province of Mauretania Tingitana, in modern-day Morocco. The name of the Godala people is hypothesized to be derived from the word Gaetuli.
Later accounts contradict that description. Pliny the Elder claims that the Gaetuli were essentially different from other indigenous North African Numidian tribes despite sharing the same language. Contemporary historians acknowledge the significant ethnic divisions between the Berber tribes and the existence of individual kings and separate political spheres.
Gaetulian forces next appear as forces loyal to Gaius Marius during the Bellum Octavianum, a civil war in 87 BC. Possibly in return for land the Gaetulian forces fought for Marius against Gnaeus Octavius. After almost 90 years of documented peace between the Gaetuli and Rome the tribes invaded the Roman occupied area in what became known as the "Gaetulian War" in 3 AD. Some historians describe the war more as an uprising that occurred as a result of possible land incursions and Roman mandated control of the movement of the semi-nomadic Gaetuli. In response to the attack, forces led by Cossus Cornelius Lentulus were dispatched to put down the invasion which they successfully accomplished in 6 A.D. Cossus Cornelius Lentulus was given the surname Gaetulicus for his successful campaign.
In 17 AD the Musulamii tribe, a Gaetulian sub-tribe led by Tacfarinas, fought back against the Romans over the building of a road across Musulamii territory by the Legio III Augusta. The Musulamii were joined in the conflict against the Romans by the Gaetuli and the neighboring Garamantes. This was the largest war in the Algeria region of Roman Africa in the history of Roman occupation. After the defeat of the Musulamii the Gaetuli ceased to appear in Roman military record. Further records of the Gaetuli indicate that soldiers from the tribes served as auxiliary forces in the Roman army, while the tribes themselves provided the Empire with a range of exotic animals and purple dye among other goods through trade. Records indicate that many of the animals used in Roman games were acquired through trade connections with the Gaetuli.
Sallust and Pliny the Elder both mention the warlike tendencies of the Gaetuli, which is supported by the frequent accounts of Gaetuli invasions. These accounts appear to demonstrate that the Gaetuli did not discriminate in their targets, as they are recorded invaded both Roman territories as well as other Numidian tribes.
The Gaetuli frequently intermarried with other tribes. Apuleius references his semi-Gaetulian, semi-Numidian heritage in his Apologia (c. 170 CE). Sallust also mentions that the Gaetuli intermarried with the Persian people and gradually merged with them, becoming .
In Deipnosophistae, Athenaeus mentions several desired crops native to the Numidia and Gaetulia regions. The Gaetuli grew and traded asparagus which was "the thickness of a Cyprian reed, and twelve feet long".
Roman colonies in Gaetulia primarily exchanged goods with the Gaetuli for murex, an indigenous shellfish on the Gaetulia coastline (used to create purple dye) and for the exotic fauna native to the region, notably lions, gazelles and tigers. In Horace's Odes, the image of a Gaetulian lion is used to symbolize a great threat.Horace, Ode 1.23 The ferocity and great size of Gaetulian lions contributed to their status as a luxury commodity and Rome is recorded to have imported many to Italy.
From the period of Late Antiquity until the Islamic conquests, it can be speculated that at least a portion of the Gaetuli converted to Nicene Christianity or heresies thereof such as Donatism, like other Christian Berber tribes.
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