Juba
I. (Ἰόβας), king of Numidia, was son of Hiempsal, who was re-established on the throne by Pompey. [Hiempsal, No. 2.] (D. C. 41.41; Suet. Jul. 71.) We hear little of him during his father's lifetime, but Cicero incidentally mentions him in one of his orations as early as B. C. 63 (De Leg. Agrar. Or. 2.22), and in the following year we find him at Rome, whither he had probably been sent by his father, to support their cause against a Numidian named Masintha, on which occasion a violent altercation took place between him and Caesar, then praetor. (Suet. Jul. 71.) On the death of Hiempsal, Juba succeeded to all the power and privileges enjoyed by his father, whose authority appears to have extended not only over all Numidia but over many of the Gaetulian tribes of the interior (Hirt. B. Afr. 56), a circumstance which probably gave rise to the absurd exaggeration of Lucan, who represents him (4.670) as ruling over the whole of Africa, from the pillars of Hercules to the temple of Ammon. On the breaking out of the civil war between Caesar and Pompey, Juba espoused the cause of the latter, a course to which he was impelled both by his hereditary attachment to Pompey himself, confirmed probably by the dispute with Caesar already adverted to, and by personal enmity to Curio, who in the year of his tribuneship (B. C. 50) had proposed a law for reducing the kingdom of Juba to the condition of a Roman province, Hence, when Curio landed in Africa (B. C. 49) with an army of only two legions, the king was prompted by private revenge, as well as general policy, to hasten to the support of P. Attius Varus, the Pompeian general in Africa. Before, however, Juba could arrive to his succour, Varus had suffered a considerable defeat, and with difficulty maintained his ground under the walls of Utica. On the first news of the king's approach, at the head of a numerous army, Curio retreated to a strong position on the sea-coast, called the Castra Cornelia, but in order to draw him away from thence, Juba caused a report to be spread that he himself had retired into the interior, and had only detached a small force under Saburra to the relief of Utica. Curio fell easily into the snare, attacked the advanced guard of the Numidians at the river Bagradas, and drove it before him; nor did he discover his mistake until his little army was entirely surrounded and overwhelmed by the countless swarms of the Numidian cavalry. Curio himself fell in the action, with almost all his infantry : a few cohorts of cavalry, which had made their escape to the camp near Utica, and surrendered to Varus at discretion, were put to the sword in cold blood by Juba, in spite of the opposition of the Roman general. (Caes. Civ. 2.23-44; D. C. 41.41, 42 ; Appian, App. BC 2.44-46; Lucan, 4.581_824 ; Liv. Epit. cx.; Oros. 6.15; Flor. 4.2.) For these services, Juba was rewarded by the senate of the Pompeian party with the title of king, and other honours; while Caesar and the senate at Rome proclaimed him a public enemy. (D. C. 41.42; Lucan, 5.56.) He continued in undisturbed possession of his kingdom until the beginning of the year B. C. 46, when Caesar in person landed in Africa, where Scipio, Cato, and the remaining leaders of the Pompeian party, were now assembled. Juba was advancing in person, at the head of a large army, to the support of Scipio, when he received intelligence that his own dominions had been invaded from another quarter by Bocchus, king of Mauritania, and the Roman general P. Sitius, who had obtained considerable successes, and even made themselves masters of the important city of Cirta. Hereupon he returned with his army, to oppose this new enemy, contenting himself with sending thirty elephants to the assistance of Scipio. Of his operations against Sitius we know nothing, but it was not long before the urgent request of the Roman commander recalled him to his support; and leaving his general Saburra to make head against Bocchus and Sitius, he himself joined Scipio in his camp near Uzita, with three legions of regular infantry, 800 wellarmed cavalry, and thirty elephants, besides a countless swarm of light-armed infantry and Numidian horse. Yet he did not, after all, render any very important services to the cause of his allies. A combat of cavalry took place soon after his arrival, in which, notwithstanding their superior numbers, the Numidians were defeated, and Juba himself, as well as Labienus, narrowly escaped falling into the hands of the enemy. Meanwhile he gave the greatest offence to the Romans with whom he was associated, by his haughty and arrogant bearing towards their officers, and even towards Scipio himself. The Gaetulians also quitted his standard in great numbers, being attracted to Caesar by his relationship to Marius, whose name still exercised a powerful influence over them. In the final action at Thapsus, the elephants, on which both Scipio and Juba in great measure relied, having been once put to flight, the Numidians offered but little resistance, and their camp fell into the hands of the enemy almost without a struggle. Juba himself fled from the field of battle to the strong city of Zama, where he had deposited his wives and children, as well as his treasures and military stores, and in which he had prepared all things for a desperate defence; but the inhabitants, having already received tidings of Caesar's victory, shut the gates against him. He now wandered about for some time, until at length, having learnt that his lieutenant Saburra had been utterly defeated by P. Sitius, and that Cato had perished by his own hand at Utica, he abandoned all hopes of safety, and put an end to his own life, having previously, it is said, dispatched the Roman general Petreius, who had been the companion of his flight. (Hirt. B. Afr. 25, 48, 52, 55-57, 66, 74, 80-86, 91-94; D. C. 42.56-58, 43.2-9; Appian, App. BC 2.95-97, 100; Plut. Caes. 52, 53; Liv. Epit. cxiii. cxiv.; Oros. 6.16 ; Flor. 4.2; Eutrop. 6.23; Suet. Jul. 35.) There is nothing in any of the accounts transmitted to us of Juba which would lead us to rank him above the ordinary level of barbarians; but it must be admitted that these accounts are derived from his enemies; had the party of Pompey triumphed, we should perhaps have been led to form a more favourable estimate of the Numidian king. The coins of Juba are numerous; they all bear his head on the obverse, and are accommodated to the same standard of weight with the Roman denarius: one of them is figured on the preceding page. [E.H.B]
II. (Ἰόβας), king of Mauritania, son of the preceding. He was a mere child at the time of his father's death (B. C. 46), after which event he was carried a prisoner to Rome by Caesar, and compelled to grace the conqueror's triumph. (Appian, App. BC 2.101; Plut. Caes. 55.) In other respects he appears to have been well treated. He was brought up in Italy, where he received an excellent education, and applied himself with such diligence to study, that he turned out one of the most learned men of his day. As he rose to manhood he obtained a high place in the favour of Octavian, whom he accompanied in his expedition to the East; nor did he fail to reap the fruits of this favour, in the general settlement of the affairs of the empire, after the death of Antony (B. C. 30). On that occasion Octavian restored his young friend to the possession of his paternal kingdom of Numidia, at the same time that he gave him in marriage Cleopatra, otherwise called Selene, the daughter of Antony and Cleopatra. (D. C. 51.15; Plut. Ant. 87; Strab. xvii. p.828.) At a subsequent period (B. C. 25) Augustus gave him the two provinces of Mauritania (afterwards called Tingitana and Caesariensis), which had formed the kingdoms of Bocchus and Bogud, in exchange for Numidia, which was reduced to a Roman province. Some of the Gaetulian tribes were at the same time subjected to his sway; and almost the only event of his long reign that we find recorded is an insurrection of these tribes, which assumed so formidable an aspect, that Juba was unable to re press it by his own efforts; and even the Roman general Cornelius Cossus, whom he called in to his assistance, did not succeed in reducing them until after a long protracted struggle, by which he earned the honorary appellation of Gaetulicus. (Dio Cass. liii 26, 4.28; comp. Strab. xvii. pp. 828, 831.) The exact period of his death is nowhere mentioned, but Strabo more than once speaks of him as lately dead (xvii. pp. 828, 829, 840) at the time that he himself was writing; and this statement, coupled with the evidence of one of his coins, which bears the date of the 48th year of his reign, renders it probable that we may assign his death to A. D. 18 or 19 at latest. (See Eckhel, vol. iv. p. 157; Clinton, F. H. vol. iii. p. 203.)
The tranquil reign of Juba appears to have afforded but few materials for history; but it is evident that his kingdom rose to a pitch of power and prosperity under his rule far exceeding what it had before attained, and he endeavoured to introduce as far as possible the elements of Greek and Roman civilisation among his barbarian subjects. Among other things, he converted a town called Iol into a handsome city, with an excellent port, to which he gave the name of Caesareia, and which continued from thenceforth the capital of Mauritania. (Strab. xvii. p.831; Eutrop. 7.10.) So great was the reverence entertained for him by his own subjects, that they even paid him divine honours after his death (Lactant. de Fals. Relig. i. 11; Minucius Felix, 23), nor are there wanting proofs of the consideration which he enjoyed during his lifetime in foreign countries also. Thus we find him obtaining the honorary title of duumvir of the wealthy city of Gades (Avienus, de Ora Marit. 5.275), and apparently at New Carthage also (Mém. de l'Acad. des Inscr. vol. xxxviii. p. 104); and Pausanias mentions a statue erected to his memory at Athens itself. (Paus. 1.17.2.) Works
But it is to his literary works that Juba is indebted for his chief reputation. He appears to have retained on the throne the habits of study which he had acquired in early life; and in the number and variety of his writings he might vie with many professed grammarians. His works are continually cited by Pliny (H. N. v. viii. x. xii. xiii. &c. passim), who regards his authority with the utmost deference. Plutarch (Plut. Sert. 9) calls him ὁ πάντων ἱστορικώατος βασιλὲων, Athenaeus (iii. p. 83b.) ἀνὴρ πολυμαθέστατος; and Avienus (de Ora Marit. 5.279) has described him as Octaviano principi acceptissimus Et literarum semper in studio Juba.
He appears indeed to have laboured in almost every branch of literature; some of his works being purely grammatical or antiquarian, while others comprise a wide field of history, geography, natural history, and the fine arts. The most important among those of which the names have been transmitted to us are the following:-- 1. A history of Africa
(Αιβυκά, Plut. Parallel. Minor. 23; περὶ Λιβύης συγγράμματα. Athen. 3.83b.), in which he had made use of the Punic authorities accessible to him, a circumstance which must have rendered it especially valuable. It is evident, however, from some of the passages cited from it, that he had mixed these up with fables of Greek origin. (Plut. Sert. 9.) It is probably from this work that most of the information quoted from his authority concerning the natural history of lions, elephants, &c. is derived, though the title of the book is not mentioned (Plin. Nat. 8.4, 5, 13, &c.; Aelian, Ael. NA 7.23, 9.58; Plut. de Solert. Anim. p. 972a.; Philostr. Vit. Apollon. 2.13, p. 62, ed. Olear.), and it was doubtless here also that he gave that account of the origin of the Nile, derived, as we are expressly told, from Punic sources, which is cited by Pliny and other authors. (Plin. Nat. 5.10; Amm. Marc. 22.15; Solin. 35.) It may indeed be regarded as Pliny's chief authority for the geographical account of Africa contained in the fifth book of his Natural History. The third book of this work is quoted by Plutarch (Parallel. l.c.). 2. Περὶ Ἀσσυρίων
In two books, in which he followed the authority of Berosus. (Tatian, Orat. adv. Graec. 58; Clem. Al. Strom. i. p. 329.) 3. history of Arabia
A history of Arabia, which he addressed to C. Caesar (the grandson of Augustus) when that prince was about to proceed on his expedition to the East, B. C. 1. It appears to have contained a general description of the country, and all that was then known concerning its geography, natural productions, &c. It is cited by Pliny as the most trustworthy account of those regions which was known to him (H. N. 6.26, 28, 30, 12.31.). 4. Ρωμα̈κὴ ἱστορία
Cited repeatedly by Stephanus of Byzantium (s. vv. Ἀβοριγῖνες, Ὠστία, &c.). Numerous statements quoted by Plutarch, from Juba. without mentioning any particular work, but relating to the early history and antiquities of Rome, are evidently derived from this treatise. (Plnt. Romul. 14, 15, 17, Num. 7, 13, Quaest. Rom. p. 269, 278, 282, 285; see also Athen. 3.98b. vi. p. 229c.) From some of these passages, it appears that Juba displayed the same tendency as many Greek writers to assign a Greek origin to all the Roman institutions. This work is styled in one passage Ρ̓ωμαικὴ ἀρχαιολογία (Steph. Byz. s. v. Νομαντία), but it is evident, from the mention of Numantia, as well as that of events which occurred in the second Punic war, and even as late as the time of Sulla (Plut. Comp. Marc. et Pelop. 1, Sulla, 16), that it did not relate exclusively to the early periods of Rome, and was probably a general history. 5. Ὁμοιότητες
Apparently a comparison between the manners and customs of the Romans and those of the Greeks, or of synonymous terms in the two languages. (Athenae. iv. p. 170e.) 6. Θεατρικὴ ʽιστορία
(Athen. 4.175d.; Phot. Bibl. p. 104b. ed. Bekker; Hesych. s. v. κγωπεία.) This seems to have been a general treatise on all matters connected with the stage, of which the fourth book related to musical instruments in particular. It was a voluminous work, as the seventeenth book is mentioned by Photius (l.c.). The statements cited by Athenaeus (iv. p. 177a. 182, a. 183, e. xiv. p. 660) are evidently taken from this work. 7. Περὶ ψραφικῆς, or περὶ Ζωψράφων.
(Phot. Bibl. p. 103a.; Harpocrat. s. vv. Παρράσιος and Πολύγνωτος.) It is not clear whether these two titles indicate the same work or not; but it seems probable that it was a general history of painting, including the lives of the most eminent painters. The eighth book is cited by Harpocration (s. v. Παῤὁάσιος 8, 9. Two little treatises of a botanical or medical nature
Two little treatises of a botanical or medical nature; the one concerning the plant Euphorbia, which grew on Mount Atlas, where Juba was the first to discover it, and to which he attributed many valuable medical qualities (Plin. Nat. 5.1, 25.38); the other, peri\ o)pou=, concerning the juice of the poppy, or opium, is cited by Galen. (Opp. vol. ii. p. 297.) 10. Περὶ φθορᾶς λεξέως
A grammatical work, of which the second book is cited by Photius in his Lexicon, and by Suidas (s. v. Σ̓κομβρίσαι). Epigram upon a bad actor
Lastly, an epigram by Juba upon a bad actor, of the name of Leonteus, is preserved to us by Athenaeus (viii. p. 343). It is not calculated to give us a high opinion of the poetical powers of the royal grammarian. Assessment
His exalted station did not preserve Juba from the censure of his rivals among men of letters, and we learn from Suidas (s. v. Ἰόβας) that his contemporary Didymus, the celebrated grammarian, attacked him in many of his writings. Besides the passesages above cited, many others will be found scattered through the works of the later Greek and Latin authors, and the lexicographers, in which the writings of Juba are quoted, but mostly without any indication of the particular work referred to. An elaborate account of his life and writings, by the Abbé Sevin, will be found in the Mémoires de l'Académie des Inscriptions, vol. iv. p. 457, &c. (See also Vossius, de Historicis Graecis, p. 219, ed. Westermann; Clinton. F. H. vol. iii. p. 201, 551; Wernsdorff, Excursus I. ad Avienum, in the fifth vol. of his Poetae Latini Minores, part iii. p. 1419.)
Juba is supposed to have left two children by his wife Cleopatra, of whom his son Ptolemy succeeded him upon the throne, while his daughter Drusilla married Antonius Felix, governor of Judaea. There is, however, much reason to doubt whether the latter statement is correct. [Drusilla.] According to Josephus (J. AJ 17.13.4), he was married a second time after the death of Cleopatra to Glaphyra, daughter of Archelaus, king of Cappadocia, and widow of Alexander, the son of Herod the Great, but it seems probable that this is a mistake. (See Bayle, Dictionn. Historique, vol. vii. p. 90, 8vo. edit.) The statement with which Josephus follows it, that Glaphyra survived her husband, and returned after his death to the court of her father, is certainly erroneous, for Archelaus died in A. D. 17, when Juba was still living. A coin of Juba, having his head on one side and that of his wife Cleopatra on the other, is given under Cleopatra [Vol. I. p. 802].
[E.H.B]
- Paus. 1.17.2