Africa Vetus ("Old Africa"), the land territory of Phoenician Carthage (roughly corresponding to modern northeastern Tunisia), fell into Roman hands after the final defeat and destruction of Carthage at the end of the Third Punic War (146 BC). The fertility of its soil was proverbial among the Romans, far greater than it is today. The province was populous (c. 1.5 million inhabitants, roughly the same as contemporary Britain) and was, by 50 BC, the most important source of the City of Rome's grain supply. It was said that Africa fed the Roman populace for eight months of the year, while Egypt provided the remaining four months' supply. The province was a land of vast estates ("latifundia") owned by absentee landlords. Pliny the Elder states that in the time of the emperor Nero (ruled 54–68), half of all arable land in the province was owned by just six Roman senators. Until 45 BC, the rest of northwest Africa was organised as two Berber Roman satellite-states, Numidia (Tripolitania, western Tunisia/eastern Algeria) and Mauretania (central/western Algeria and Morocco).