ABSTRACT
By the end of the first century BC, Juba had been on the throne for over twenty years. But the Roman world was changing.1 Augustus turned 60 in 3 BC, and questions of succession were becoming acute. A new generation of the imperial family was reaching maturity, but events conspired to frustrate any of Augustus’ plans concerning who would follow him. Juba’s childhood friends did not seem destined to play any role: Marcellus had died in 23 BC, and Tiberius, although granted a five-year Eastern imperium beginning in 6 BC, almost simultaneously announced his retirement from politics and withdrawal to Rhodes. Marcus Agrippa, Augustus’ closest confidant and an obvious successor, had died in 12 BC, Augustus’ sister Octavia the following year, and Tiberius’ brother Drusus two years later. Augustus’ daughter Julia, successively the wife of Marcellus, Agrippa, and Tiberius, was already involved in the intrigues that resulted in her banishment in 2 BC: a liaison with the only surviving son of Antonius was her ultimate undoing. Any solution to the succession issue would, so it seemed, bypass one generation and turn to the younger one just coming to maturity at the turn of the century.
