Juba II

Juba II (in Tifinagh: ⵢⵓⴱⴰ II) was a Berber king of the Maurétanie (Western part of Berbérie, starting from current the Morocco, while passing by all the north of current Algérie, until current the Tunisia). Wire of Juba I {{er}}, born towards 52 av. J.C and died towards 23 a. JC, it reigned under the Roman supervision starting from its capital Caeserea (Césarée, today Cherchell in the Northern center of the Algérie).

Biography

After the defeat of Juba Ier, César made a triumphal entry with Zama. It was in the dwelling of late Aguellid (Berber king) that it decided division of Africa and fate of the royal family. Juba II then five years old hardly was sent as an hostage to Rome where it appeared, thereafter, with the triumph of César behind Vercingétorix of Gaulle and Arsinoé, sister of Cléopâtre of Egypt. What became the other family members of Juba? The historians do not blow mot. of them. Were they withdrawn in the mountains of the Aurès? Or in the coastal towns? Were they dispersed by the winners? No one does not speak about it at the time of Juba II and one similar mystery in general covers many Berber families and those of the aguellids in particular.

Always it is, that Juba II was high in a captivity gilded by Octavie, the sister of Octave, the future emperor Auguste. Juba attracted the friendship of its guard who offered occasions to him to be distinguished and to rise with the row of the other princes. Octave granted the established among Roman to him and Juba then took the names and first names of its guard: " GAIUS IULIUS" and transmitted them later to its freed, but he abstained from carrying them as soon as he accepted the title of king.

He probably took part in the East campaign of 31 with 29 against Cléopâtre and Marc Antoine, and surely with that of Spain of 26 with 25 where Octave appreciated its fidelity and its address. It was with the return of this countryside that it accepted in reward part of the States of Bocchus and Bogud in addition to what there remained kingdom of his father.

At the 6th year of its reign, in 19 av. J.C, he married Cléopâtre Séléné (the gréco-Egyptian woman), girl of Cléopâtre queen of Egypt and Marc Antoine, which was high with his/her twin brother Alexandre Hélios by the sister of Octave. It is this same Octavie, wife repudiated of Marc Antoine, which had raised Juba II. Cléopâtre Séléné was crowned in its turn because of its maternal ascent and was officially associated with the capacity without there being however territorial division of authority. This territory, in spite of certain amputations with the profit of the Roman colonies, thus extended from the Atlantique in the West, the mouth of Ampsaga (Wadi el to kebir) in the East and included/understood the areas of Sétif in the south as well as part of the territories of the Gétules of South-east Algérie N and Tunisia N.

The re-establishment of this vast kingdom, superior in surface with that of Massinissa in its great days, did not constitute therefore a retreat in the Roman colonial policy. It marked only one pause. Auguste less gave up in Juba the property than the usufruct of its kingdom, having the territories, dividing them, parcelling out them with its own way, without the king Numide not expressing the least resistance, so much its spirit, by the education which had been exempted to him, was obnubilated by obedience in Rome.

But it is true that its Berber bottom did not disappear, and Juba II was interested all the same in its origins and the study of libyque and punic, languages of culture of its ancestors. This interest of a cultural nature was not accompanied by patriotism and never Juba did not feel this patriotic feeling for which fought and died so much of Numide S and Moors.

While renonçant with the annexation of the Maurétanie, the emperor knew what it did: with Juba II with the head of these vast territories where many Roman colonies independent of the king were enracinés, it could, without fear, to entrust the administration of the natives to a " chief; indigène" who, more skilfully than of the Roman civils servant, could maintain peace. Africa thus continued to in general provide Rome with its various products and agricultural in particular.

The leisures which the administration of its kingdom left him, Juba II devoted them to the study and soon, it acquired in sciences and the letters a great reputation.

Always eager to know its origins, it made go up its genealogy until Hercules which married the Libyan woman Tingé (Tendja) widowed of Antée of the Greek legend.

It made build many public edifices, places or forum S, Théâtre S, thermal baths, temples, public gardens… Many vestiges confirm the size of Juba II which had a great power of work and assimilation (Sculpture, Architecture…) Its work was of a great value but was not preserved by time although it allowed several writers Greek and Latin to draw their documentation there so much it was rich.

It dispatched many copyists in the capitals of the world civilized to bring back to him the discoveries of the thinkers of the time, notwithstanding that, it organized forwardings charged to discover the sources of the the Nile and to study the archipelago of the the Canaries.

He wrote a treaty on his native land Libuca heading; in three volumes, container Geography, natural history, Mythology, beliefs of all kinds…

It left writings on the Assyrie NS, the Arabia, the Plante S, the Roman Histoire … Undoubtedly it in this search of its origins was and wanted it to leave what it missed it…

Very known of the Greeks and the Romans as a scientist, artist, man of letters, author of several treaties on the letters, the Painting, the theater, the History, the Geography and a medicine. It was at the origin of discovered Euphorbe (to which it gave this name, which was that of its personal doctor) and its treaty on this plant inspired, later, several Greek doctors.

Its manuscripts were as many references for several Greek historians, such as Tite-Live, Alexandre of Millet, Diodore of Sicily. Pline Old the which quoted it in its books known as of him “which it was even more known for its knowledge than for its reign”.

The Greeks set up to him a statue near the library of the gymnasium of Ptolémée to Pausanias. Its reign was marked by its direction of the democracy and the attention which it had for its people.

His wife Cléopâtre Séléné, never forgot as for it her origins Greek and Egyptian, it obtained from Juba that they are both buried in a funerary building similar to the Pyramides of Egypt.

What led the king to make build this tomb close to Tipasa called nowadays (undoubtedly because of the later inclusion of blank doors decorated with cross) the “Tombeau of the Christian woman”. It combines the Berber Tumulus funerary with the Egyptian pyramid by its external form (cylindrical form covering a square and capped base of a cone in steps).

His/her son and successor Ptolémée de Maurétanie partly continued the policy of his father, but did not inherit the virtues of this one.

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