ABSTRACT
Juba II1 was born about 48 BC, the son of King Juba I of Numidia, the territory south and west of Carthage. Within two years he was an orphan and had been removed to Rome as a captive, displayed in the African triumph of Julius Caesar in 46 BC. Why this happened is connected with the convoluted and lengthy history of the Roman relationship with Africa and the impact of the Roman civil wars. The royalty of Numidia had been involved in Roman affairs for over 150 years. Juba’s great-great-great-grandfather, the erudite warrior king Massinissa, was a follower of Scipio Africanus and lived to the age of 90, surviving both the Second and the Third Punic Wars and presiding over a notable and cultured court. Massinissa’s grandson – Juba’s greatgreat-uncle – was the famous Jugurtha, who had his own complex relationship with Rome. Juba’s grandfather Hiempsal was a historian, and his father, Juba I, had come to Rome on a Numidian embassy in the 80s BC, only to be insulted and assaulted by the young Julius Caesar, which meant that when Juba I became king he naturally gravitated toward the faction of Gaius Pompeius.
