page_title: Berber kings of Roman-era Tunisia
section_title: Juba, Bocchus, Juba, Ptolemy
hierarchical_section_title: Berber kings of Roman-era Tunisia / Juba, Bocchus, Juba, Ptolemy
caption_attribution_description: English: Portrait of Juba II, king of Mauretania (25 BC–23 CE). Marble, Roman artwork, ca. Christian Era. From Cherchell (ancient Cæsarea), Algeria. Français&#160;: Portrait de Juba II, roi de Mauritanie (25 av. J.-C.-23 ap. J.-C.). Marbre, œuvre romaine, environs de l'ère chrétienne. Provenance&#160;: Cherchell (ancienne Césarée), Algérie.
context_page_description: For nearly 250 years, Berber kings of the 'House of Masinissa' ruled in Numidia, which included much of Tunisia, and later in adjacent regions, first as sovereigns allied with Rome and then eventually as Roman clients. This period commenced with the defeat of Carthage by the Roman Army, assisted by Berber cavalry led by Masinissa at the Battle of Zama in 202 BC, and it lasted until the year 40 AD, during the reign of the Roman Emperor Gaius, also known as Caligula.
  During the Second Punic War Rome entered into an alliance with Masinissa, the son of a Berber tribal leader. Masinissa had been driven out of his ancestral realm by a Carthage-backed Berber rival. Following the Roman victory at Zama, Masinissa was celebrated as a "friend of the Roman people". He became king of Numidia and ruled for over fifty years. For seven generations his line of kings continued its relationship with an increasingly powerful Roman state.
  During this era, the Berbers ruled over many cities as well as extensive land, and the peoples under their governance prospered. Municipal and civic affairs were organized using a combination of Punic and Berber political traditions.
context_section_description: Decades later, the Numidian king Juba I (r. 60–46) played a significant role in Rome's civil wars, contested by arms between Pompey and Julius Caesar. Juba I was king by descent, being in the line of the famous Masinissa (240–148), per Mastanabal (king 148–140), via Jugurtha's half-brother Gauda (king, 106–88), by Gauda's son Hiempsal II (king thereafter, 88–62), who was the father of Juba I. In 47 BC, Julius Caesar and his forces landed in Africa in pursuit of Pompey's remnant army, which was headquartered at Utica near Carthage. There Caesar's enemies Pompey and Cato enjoyed the support of Juba I.
  Juba I had long held a personal animus against Julius Caesar dating back to an incident when Caesar was praetor (62 BC) in Africa; the story is related by the ancient Roman writer Suetonius and regarded King Hiempsal II, father of Juba I. Caesar judged as unfair and oppressive the King's treatment of his noble vassal Masintha and effectively interfered, not without physical altercation between Caesar and Juba I.
  Cato 'Uticensis', a praetor in 54 and a political leader of Caesar's optimate opponents. was at Utica with Juba I. Cato was widely admired, but also widely mocked. Caesar's nearby victory at the Battle of Thapsus almost put an end to this Roman civil war. Cato committed suicide by his sword. Juba I, his kingdom lost, also committed suicide. Caesar annexed Numidia for Rome.
  The Berber kings of Mauretania, Bocchus II of the east (roughly the modern Algerian coast), and his brother Bogud of the west (capital at Tingi, modern Tangier), had both favored Julius Caesar (100–44 BC), whom Juba I had worked to oppose. Both had significantly aided Caesar's campaigns: Bogud fought with Caesar in the second Hispanic War; in Africa, Bocchus II captured the Numidian capital city of Cirta from Juba I. In the final Roman civil war (c. 34–30), the contest lay between Octavius and Marcus Antonius. Bocchus II favored Octavius, Julius Caesar's adopted son, later renowned as Augustus, but Bogud inclined to Antonius. The victory of Augustus cost Bogud his kingdom. Bocchus II remained king, yet before he died, Bochus II willed his kingdom to Rome.
  Augustus (imperial rule: 31 BC – 14 AD) controlled the Roman state following the civil wars that marked the end of the Republic (c. 510–44 BC). He established a quasi-constitutional regime known as the Principate, commonly included as the first phase of the Empire. Roman actions in Africa throughout the period of civil war are harshly criticized by a modern Maghribi historian, Abdallah Laroui, who notes the cumulative lands lost by Berbers to Romans, and how the Romans had steadily steered events to their benefit.
  About 26 BC, the emperor Augustus at Rome moved to "restore" the Berber royal line stemming from Masinissa by installing Juba II (son of the defeated Juba I) on the throne, not as King of Numidia, but of Mauritania (west of Numidia). Captured as a youth by the Romans, Juba II had been raised and educated in proximity to the court of Augustus, who became his personal friend. Juba II was installed in power as a client king of the Empire, an amicus romani ("friend of Rome"). His domain was "an artificial monarchy: imposed by Rome on an area which his family had never governed."
  Juba II was also "a Greek man of letters", an able author of books on the culture and history of Africa, including his Libyka (written circa 25–5 BC) on the Berber peoples, and later a popular book on Arabia. Unfortunately, only scattered pieces of these works remain. He married well: Cleopatra Selene II, the daughter of Marcus Antonius, consul (44, 34 BC) and triumvir (43–38, 37–33 BC), and Cleopatra, the Ptolemaic Queen of Egypt; she also had been raised at Rome. Their new capital of Greco-Roman style, Iol Caesarea, was established on the sea coast. Though intended to serve as a buffer between Roman Africa and Berber tribes (both those settled or long accustomed to transhumance within the province, and those south of the frontier), Juba II was never accepted by the more tribal elements among his kingdom's Gaetulian 
caption: Juba II, reigned 25 BCE – 23 CE.
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