Juba II and Kleopatra Selene (2003, 2015)

Duane W. Roller was Professor of Classics at Ohio State University. Now he has retired and lives in Santa Fe, New Mexico. He is the author of several books about the history of the ancient world, including The Building Program of Herod the Great (1998) and Cleopatra: A Biography (2010, 2012).

His book about the world of Juba II and Kleopatra Selene was published in 2003 (hardcover) and in 2015 (paperback). 

 

The book begins with a brief introduction and ends with a brief epilogue. The main story in between is divided into eleven chapters. Here is the table of contents:

** Chapter 1 – Juba’s Numidian Ancestry

** Chapter 2 – Mauretania

** Chapter 3 – Juba’s youth and education

** Chapter 4 – Kleopatra Selene

** Chapter 5 – The Mauretanian client kingdom: foundation, military history, and economy

** Chapter 6 – The artistic and cultural program of Juba and Kleopatra Selene

** Chapter 7 – Rex Literatissimus [a most learned king]

** Chapter 8 – Libyka [Juba’s work about North Africa]

** Chapter 9 – The eastern expedition with Gaius Caesar

** Chapter 10 – On Arabia

** Chapter 11 – The Mauretanian dynasty

When a chapter is longer than 10-15 pages, the text should be divided into shorter sections by means of subheadings. Roller is aware of this golden rule. He follows it in the introduction and in chapters 5, 6, and 7, but in the remaining chapters the rule is ignored. This is a shame. He should have been consistent. He should have followed this rule in every chapter. This would have made his book more reader-friendly than it is now.

Chapters 1 and 2 cover the geography of the region (Numidia and Mauretania), while chapters 3 and 4 are biographical (Juba II and Kleopatra Selene). 

 

Chapters 5 and 6 cover the kingdom of Juba II and Kleopatra Selene, while chapters 7-10 cover Juba’s scholarly production. 

 

Chapter 11 – the final chapter - covers the short history of the Mauretanian kingdom, from Juba II to his son Ptolemaios.

At the end of the book we have the following items:

** Appendix 1 – The published works of Juba II

** Appendix 2 – Stemmata [family trees]

** Appendix 3 – Client kingship

** Bibliography

** List of passages cited [index locorum]

** Index

The bibliography covers more than thirty pages (276-309). There are books and articles in several languages, not only in English. The standard work Rome in Africa by Susan Raven (third edition, 1993) is included, but one important work is missing: The North African Stones Speak by Paul MacKendrick (hardcover 1980, paperback 2000).

What about illustrations? There are four maps and 26 figures. All illustrations are in black-and-white. Figures 25 and 26 show several coins from Numidia and Mauretania: figure 25 offers seven small pictures, while figure 26 offers eight small pictures.

Nineteen of the 26 figures are photos taken by the author himself in different locations - Tunisia, Algeria, Morocco, and Spain – which shows that the author has travelled extensively in the region whose ancient history he is describing in the book. 

 

This is quite impressive.

Unfortunately, the quality of his photos is not very high. In fact, some of them are so poor that it is almost impossible to see what they are supposed to show. The worst cases are figure 2 from Zama, figure 10 from Volubilis in Morocco, figure 22 from the Canary Islands, and figure 23 from the Atlas Mountains.

THE MAIN CHARACTERS OF THE BOOK

Juba II was born in 48 BC. He was the son of Juba I, king of Numidia. One of his ancestors was Massinissa. Another ancestor was Jugurtha. In the civil war between the populares and the optimates – between Caesar and Pompeius, known in English as Pompey – Juba I chose the wrong side, the losing side. 

 

When Juba I died in 46 BC, Caesar rescued his son and brought him to Rome. He was displayed in Caesar’s African triumph in 46 BC, although he was only two years old.

When Caesar was killed in 44 BC, the young Juba was placed in the house of Octavian, the future emperor Augustus. He was raised in the house of Octavia – sister of the future emperor – where he received a Roman education. He was the son of an enemy, but from now on he was treated as a friend, as a member of the imperial family.

Kleopatra Selene was born in 40 BC. She was the daughter of the Egyptian Queen Kleopatra and the Roman politician Marcus Antonius, known in English as Mark Antony. Kleopatra and Antonius lost the civil war with Octavian in 31 BC and committed suicide in the following year. 

 

When Octavian arrived in Egypt, he rescued their daughter and brought her to Rome. She was also placed in the house of Octavia where she received a Roman education. She was the daughter of an enemy, but from now on she was treated as a friend, as a member of the imperial family.

Juba II could not become king of Numidia, because it had been turned into a Roman province, but there was another area in North Africa that had to be controlled: Mauretania in the western part of North Africa. 

 

Augustus decided that Juba II should be a Roman client king of this area. He needed a proper wife. For this purpose Augustus chose Kleopatra Selene. The marriage took place in 25 BC. She was only 15, he was 23. Neither had any connection with their new kingdom, but both had strong ties to North Africa: Juba II was the son of a Numidian king, while Kleopatra was the daughter of an Egyptian queen.

Juba II ruled Mauretania for almost fifty years, from 25 BC until his death in AD 23 or 24. Kleopatra Selene was his queen for ca. twenty years, from 25 BC until her death around 5 BC.

Their son Ptolemaios was born sometime between 13 and 9 BC. He ruled with his father during the last years of his father’s life. When Juba died in AD 23 or 24, Ptolemaios ruled alone for more than ten years. He was killed by the Roman emperor Caligula, probably in AD 40. This was the end of the Mauretanian dynasty.

The kingdom of Mauretania had two capitals: 

 

(1) Lol, which is located on the coast, and which was renamed Caesarea. Today it is known as Chercell in Algeria. 

 

(2) Volubilis, which is located inland. The remains of this ancient city are found in present-day Morocco.

Juba II was not only king of Mauretania, he was also a scholar. He wrote several books while he was a prince in Rome, He wrote more books while he was a king in North Africa. As a member of the Roman elite, he knew both Latin and Greek. Most of his works are written in Greek.

The late American scholar Paul MacKendrick sums up the role of Juba II and Kleopatra Selene with these words:

“He was Numidian born, Punic in culture, Greek by education, Roman in experience; having walked as a small boy in Caesar’s triumph, he was brought up in the Julio-Claudian circle and married to the fifteen-year-old Cleopatra Selene, daughter, as we saw, of Cleopatra by Mark Antony. This piece of canny Augustan matchmaking turned the children of two enemies into devoted vassals.”

[The North African Stones Speak (1980, 2000), page 205.]

A REVIEW OF THE BOOK

Josephine Crawley Quinn (St. John’s College, Oxford University) reviewed the hardcover version of this book for the online magazine Bryn Mawr Classical Review (2004.07.31). The general tone of her review is positive. She says:

“Duane Roller’s study of the client kings of Mauretania -- the first in English -- is a welcome addition to the list [of recent books about Roman North Africa]: its judicious combination of material and literary evidence (not a feature of other recent books) makes for a rewarding exercise in cultural and political history.”

The “generous level of speculation” in the biographical chapters about Juba II and Kleopatra Selena is described as “refreshing, though not always entirely convincing.” As an example she asks: “do Strabo's occasional references to Juba, for instance, necessarily ‘indicate strong friendship’ (page 69)?”

As for the illustrations, she says: “The book is well produced, although some of the landscape photos lack contrast.” This is a very polite way of saying what I have already said above: the quality of the photos is poor and some of them are simply hopeless.

Quinn likes this book. At the end of her review she says she has only two minor quibbles:

# 1. “Sallust is not the first author to use ‘Numidia’ as a toponym (page 41 note 4): for that, see Polybius 36.16.7 (‘Nomadia’).”

# 2. “The Medracen is not the location of a Numidian tomb (page 130), but the name of the tomb itself.”

[For more information about Medracen, see The North African Stones Speak by Paul MacKendrick (1980, 2000), pp. 190-191.]

MY COMMENTS ABOUT THE BOOK

I agree with Quinn’s review (the positive as well as the negative remarks). I like this book as much as she does. And, like Quinn, I have a few minor quibbles:

# 1. On page 1 Roller mentions Massinissa, the famous warrior king of Numidia, who was born in 240 or 238 BC. According to Roller, he “lived to the age of 90, surviving both the Second and the Third Punic Wars.”

The Second Punic War lasted from 218 to 201 BC, while the Third Punic War lasted from 149 to 146 BC. The king of Numidia lived to be very old. When he died in 148 BC, he was 90, perhaps 92. 

 

Roller knows Massinissa died in 148 BC, because it is mentioned on page 16. But he seems to have forgotten when the Third Punic War ended. Since it lasted until 146 BC, Massinissa did not survive this war.

# 2. On page 1 Roller mentions “the faction of Gaius Pompeius.” The first name of this famous politician is Gnaeus, not Gaius. Elsewhere in the book and in the index, Roller uses the right name, so why does he give a wrong name on the very first page of the book?

# 3. On page 41, note 6, Roller says Strabo’s placement of a boundary “may reflect the heresay nature of his information.” When I type the word “heresay,” a red line appears below it, to tell me that it is wrong. The correct word is “hearsay.” Did Roller use a typewriter when he wrote his book? How could he make a mistake like this? How could his book editor fail to correct it?

# 4. On page 73 Roller mentions something that happened “in the latter first century BC.” The word “latter” is wrong. It should be “later.”

Roller seems to have a big problem distinguishing between these two words, because the same mistake appears on page 165 when he talks about “the latter years of Juba’s kingship” and on page 227 when he talks about “the latter Augustan period.” In both cases the word “latter” should be replaced with the word “later.”

# 5. On page 117 Roller mentions “the fifth century AC.” The correct abbreviation is AD. Roller knows this, because he uses it on many occasions. However, he seems to be very fond of AC, because it pops up more than ten times: 132, 135, 146, 156 (note 209), 164, 173, 178, 195, 197, 206, 235, 238, 251, 252, 257, and 271.

As most people know, AC is the abbreviation for Alternate Current; hardly relevant in a book about the history of the ancient world.

# 6. On page 198 Roller says: “… there was to be no settlement or exploitation (as these was of the Purple Islands)…” The sentence in brackets should read: “as there was of the Purple Islands.”

FROM HARDCOVER TO PAPERBACK

The paperback version from 2015 is a faithful reproduction of the hardcover version from 2003. This is a shame. Between 2003 and 2015 the author and the publisher had more than ten years to identify and correct minor mistakes in the text of the first version. They also had more than ten years to replace the hopeless illustrations with some better photos. Unfortunately, they did neither.

They must have read Quinn’s review from 2004, because the Bryn Mawr Classical Review is an important source of information in the world of classical studies. But her objections were ignored. She pointed out that some photos were not as good as they should be. She was right, but they were not replaced. She mentioned two minor quibbles. She was right, but they were not corrected.

I can understand that there are some minor flaws in the first version from 2003. But I fail to understand why the author and or the publisher decided that all minor flaws should be repeated in the paperback version from 2015.

These days, when we work with computers, it is easy to open a file and correct a mistake before a new version of a document is printed. I do not understand why the author and or the publisher failed to take advantage of this opportunity to publish an improved version of the book from 2003. This is a shame.

CONCLUSION

The ancient literary evidence about Juba II and Kleopatra Selene is limited. None of Juba’s numerous works have been preserved in toto. All we have are fragments that are quoted by other ancient authors. 

 

The ancient archaeological evidence from the capital cities of Mauretania – Caesarea and Volubilis – is also limited, and it is difficult to date what has been preserved, so we cannot always tell if an ancient monument is from the time of Juba II or from a later period.

In the light of this deplorable situation, it is almost a miracle that Roller has been able to write a whole book about “the World of Juba II and Kleopatra Selene.” His account is based on a wide range of evidence: literary texts, inscriptions, and coins, as well as the remains of ancient cities.

There are many assumptions in chapters 3 and 4 about the lives of Juba II and Kleopatra, but they are based on similar cases about which we have more solid information, and Roller is careful to distinguish between what is true according to our sources and what could be true, even though it is not supported by any direct evidence.

The subtitle of the book is Royal Scholarship on Rome’s African Frontier. Roller is a classical scholar and he has written a scholarly account about the world of Juba II and Kleopatra Selene. His book was the first full-scale study in English of this topic, and twelve years later this description is still true.

Who is the target group? This book is not recommended for the beginner, because the topic may be too special. But it is highly recommended for the general reader who already has some knowledge about the history of ancient Rome and who wants to learn more. 

 

It is also recommended for the academic specialist. I am sure that even an expert in the field will learn something new and important about the world of ancient Rome by reading this book.

PS # 1. A few words about the price: the hardcover version from 2003 was and is very expensive. Amazon UK charges £ 85 for it. The paperback version from 2015 is much cheaper. Amazon UK charges only £ 30 for it.

If you were waiting for the paperback version to appear, you made a wise decision, even though you had to wait a long time, because now it is finally available, and the price is less than half of what you have to pay for the hardcover version.

PS # 2. In my review, I blame the author and/or the publisher for not correcting the minor flaws in the first edition from 2003. Since I wrote my review, I have been in contact with the author, and now I know that he should not be blamed for this. 

 

When the paperback version was to be published, he sent a list of typographical errors (including those mentioned in my review) to the publisher, but the response was that no changes could be made to the paperback. The publisher is responsible for this deplorable situation!

PS # 3. For more information about Juba’s capital Caesarea (modern Cherchell), see Sites et monuments antiques de l’Algérie by Jean-Marie Blas de Roblès & Claude Sintes (2003), pp. 30-48. An English version of this volume is available:

 

Classical Antiquities of Algeria: A Selective Guide

Translated and updated by Philip Kenrick

(2019)

PS # 4. The spectacular monument at Nemrut Dag in present-day Turkey is mentioned on pp. 137-138. It was built by King Antiochus, I who ruled Commagene from 70 or 69 to 38 or 36 BC.

 

Mount Nemrut: The Throne of the Gods is an excellent documentary film about this monument – written and directed by the Turkish filmmaker Tolga Örnek (produced in 2001, released on DVD in 2008).

PS # 5. These days the level of tourism in North Africa is not so high because of internal conflicts in several countries. 

 

If you want to visit the Roman remains of North Africa and if you think it is possible to go there, you should know that there is a travel guide that may help you find the way: North Africa: The Roman Coast - written by Ethel Davies and published by Bradt Travel Guides in 2009.

PS # 6. Cleopatra’s Daughter by Michelle Moran is a fictional account of the life and times of Kleopatra Selene (published in 2009). This historical novel has received mixed reviews on Amazon UK (all the way from 1 star to 5 stars).

***

Duane W. Roller,

The World of Juba II and Kleopatra Selene:

Royal Scholarship on Rome’s African Frontier,

Routledge, hardcover 2003, paperback 2015, 335 pages

 

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"Claudette Colvin" by Phillip Hoose (2009, 2011)

Phillip Hoose (born 1947) is an American writer who lives in Maine. He is the author of several books, including Necessities: Racial Barriers in American Sport (1989), We Were There, Too! Young People in US History (2001) and The Boys who Challenged Hitler: Knud Pedersen and the Churchill Club (2015). His book about Claudette Colvin and her role in the US civil rights movement was first published in 2009. A second edition with a new afterword appeared in 2011.

In a note at the end of the book the author explains how he first came across the name Claudette Colvin and how the book about her eventually was created:

‘In the year 2000, while I was writing my book We Were There, Too! Young People in US History, someone told me that a fifteen-year-old African-American girl had taken the same defiant stand as Rosa Parks, in the same city, but almost a year earlier. As the story went, this girl’s refusal to give up her seat on a city bus to a white passenger had helped inspire the famous Montgomery, Alabama, bus boycott of 1955 and 1956. But instead of being honoured, she had been shunned by her classmates, dismissed as an unfit role model by adult leaders, and later overlooked by historians.’

Searching the internet, he found her name, Claudette Colvin; he also found out that she was still alive. An article published in 1995 reported that she was now 56 years old and living in New York City where she worked as a nurse at a private nursing home. Hoose talked to the reporter who had written the 1995 article and asked him to call her on his behalf and ask her if she would be willing to work with him on a book about her early life. The reporter called her several times, but she said no every time. Finally, in 2006, she decided she was ready to talk to him.

[Author’s note, pp. 117-119.]

This book is based on fourteen interviews with Claudette Colvin, four interviews with her lawyer Fred Gray, and single interviews with several other key characters plus a large selection of books and articles about the civil rights movement in the US. It is an easy read, a quick read, and a good read, because the book is well-written and well-organised. Clearly, the people behind it paid attention to every aspect of the product; not only the text and the illustrations, but also the layout.

The main text is divided into ten chapters which follow a chronological line from Claudette’s childhood in the 1940s to the end of the Montgomery Bus Boycott in 1956 and the violent aftermath in 1957. Here is the table of contents:

PART ONE – FIRST CRY

Chapter 01 – Jim Crow and the detested number ten

Chapter 02 – Coot

Chapter 03 – “We seemed to hate ourselves”

Chapter 04 – “It’s my constitutional right!”

Chapter 05 – “There’s the girl who got arrested”

Chapter 06 – “Crazy” times

Chapter 07 – Another Negro woman has been arrested

Chapter 08 – Second front, second chance

PART TWO – PLAYING FOR KEEPS

Chapter 09 – Browder v. Gayle
Chapter 10 – Rage in Montgomery
Epilogue – History’s Door

At the end of the book we have the following items:

** Author’s note

** Afterword

** Bibliography

** Notes

** Acknowledgements

** Picture credits

** Index

** About the Author

In each chapter a paragraph in which Claudette Colvin is speaking in the first person alternates with one or several paragraphs in which Phillip Hoose is writing in the third person. The combination of the primary witness and the author works very well. The result is an account which flows smoothly all the way from chapter one to chapter ten.

Besides the main text, there are nineteen separate sidebars which offer information about specific topics and events. Every statement that is based on a written source is documented with a reference in the notes (pp. 129-138).

Among the many persons mentioned in the book, two victims paid with their lives: Emmett Louis Till (1941-1955) and Jeremiah Reeves (1935-1958). The former is mentioned in a sidebar on page 59; the latter is mentioned in the text, pp. 23-26, and in the notes, pp. 131-132.

SETTING THE RECORD STRAIGHT

This book is about setting the record straight. How the bus boycott began and how it ended. Today Rosa Parks is a household name. We all know her story. How she refused to give up her seat on the bus to a white person. How her brave action sparked the bus boycott which lasted for 381 days, from 5 December 1955 to 20 December 1956. We also know how it ended. Because of the bus boycott the bus company was losing a lot of money every day. It could not afford to go on like this. In the end it had to give in. So the peaceful, non-violent bus boycott forced the bus company and the city to end segregation on the buses of Montgomery.

This version of the story is not false, but on the other hand it is not true, because it is not the whole story, not the whole truth. Rosa Parks was not the first African-American who refused to give up her seat on a Montgomery bus. Others had done the same thing before her, and one of them was Claudette Colvin, who refused to give up her seat on 2 March 1955, almost nine months before Rosa Parks did the same thing on 1 December 1955.

But Claudette was considered unfit as a role model, because she was a teenager and because she had resisted arrest. Rosa Parks, on the other hand, fit the bill perfectly, because she was an adult and because she allowed the police to arrest her.

The case of Claudette and the cases of others like her caused the leaders of the black community to pay more attention to the problem. From that moment they prepared for a boycott, from that moment they were looking for the right case. When Rosa Parks was arrested on 1 December 1955, they were ready. They had a lawyer who could bail her out and take on her defence. More importantly, a network was ready to publish leaflets and organise a city-wide campaign for a boycott of the buses.

Claudette played an important role, as this book shows. Her action did not spark the bus boycott, but it fuelled the plan to organise a boycott when the right case came along.

What about the end of the boycott? Five African-American women were involved in a federal lawsuit against the city of Montgomery that challenged segregation on the buses. One of them dropped out because of intimidation from the white community. When the case went to court, there were only four women left. Claudette was one of them. The case is known as Browder v. Gayle. Browder is the name of one of the four women: Aurelia Browder. Gayle is the name of the mayor: W. A. “Tacky” Gayle.

Browder v. Gayle began in a federal district court where three judges presided. They ruled in favour of the plaintiffs (2-1). The city appealed to the Supreme Court of the US, which upheld the ruling of the federal district court.

The ruling was announced on 13 November 1956, but Mayor Gayle decided to ignore it until someone from the Supreme Court showed up and told him to respect it. On 17 December 1956 a motion for clarification and a new hearing was denied. And three days later, on 20 December 1956, Mayor Gayle was handed official written notice by federal marshals. On that day the city and the bus company gave in. They knew they had lost the battle.

Segregation on the buses was abolished. Not because of the long-running boycott, but because of Browder v. Gayle, as the book shows, and one of the four women involved in this suit was Claudette Colvin.

This book sets the record straight, how the bus boycott began and how it ended. This book gives Claudette a voice, a chance to present her version and her side of the story which had been overlooked, ignored, almost forgotten, by the leaders of the civil rights movement and by the historians who wrote about it.

Chapter ten “Rage in Montgomery” mentions another important fact that is often overlooked: the official abolition of the segregation on the buses in December 1956 was not the end of the story. There was a violent response from the white community.

Black people were attacked and properties connected with black people were attacked or even bombed. A picture on page 102 has the following caption:

“The Bell Street Baptist Church was reduced to rubble by a bomb thrown three weeks after Montgomery’s city buses were integrated.”

HONOURS, AWARDS, AND REVIEWS

Some books are very long. This one is not. I am amazed to see how much relevant information and how many important details the author is able to present in just 150 pages. A fine accomplishment indeed.

This book was written for young adults, but you should not let this fact scare you away. It is also suited for adults. It has received honours and awards from several important organisations and publications. On the frontispiece there is a list with sixteen items. I will mention five of them here:

** Winner of the National Book award

** A Newbery Honor Book

** A Washington Post Best Kid’s Book of the Year

** A Publishers Weekly Best Children’s Book of the Year

** A Kirkus Reviews Best Young Adult Book

Phillip Hoose got some good reviews as well. Inside the second version from 2011 there are excerpts from thirteen positive reviews of the first version from 2009. I will mention four of them here:

** The Washington Post: “Before Rosa Parks, there was Claudette Colvin, a teenager who knew her constitutional rights and was willing to get arrested to prove it… Hoose gives new immediacy to one of the civil rights movement’s monumental achievements: the Montgomery bus boycott.”

** The New York Times Book Review: “Phillip Hoose gives depth and context to the larger-than-life, sometimes mythologized civil rights movement… Today Claudette Colvin … has been virtually forgotten. Hoose’s book, based in part on interviews with Colvin and people who knew her, finally gives her the credit she deserves.”

** Chicago Tribune: “Hoose makes the moments in Montgomery come alive, whether it’s about Claudette’s neigborhood, her attorneys, her pastor or all the different individuals in the civil rights movement whose paths she crossed… An engrossing read.”

** The Christian Science Monitor: “Today, thanks to Hoose, a new generation of girls – and boys – can add Claudette Colvin to their list of heroines.”

CONCLUSION AND TWO MINOR QUIBBLES

If you ask me, the honours, the awards, and the positive reviews are fully justified. This is a great book. I have only two minor quibbles:

# 1. On page 126 we have a book that was published by Black Belt Press in 1992: The Judge: The Life and Opinions of Alabama’s Frank M. Johnson, Jr. by Frank Sikora. Apparently, Hoose does not know that a second edition of this book was published by NewSouth Press in 2007.

Frank M. Johnson Jr. (1918-1999) was one of the two judges in the federal district court who ruled in favour of the plaintiffs. He played an important role in the de-segregation of the South. There is a picture of him on page 105 and a separate sidebar about him on page 93.

# 2. On page 128 there is a reference to a website called “Rivers of Change.” According to Hoose, it offers information about Browder v. Gayle and about a DVD. But when I tried to visit this website, I did not find anything. It seems it has disappeared since the book was published. While searching the internet I found another website which is called “More than a Bus Ride.” This site is about the civil rights movement, but it seems to be incomplete. Obviously, we cannot blame Hoose for any of this.

As for the DVD, I think the author refers to the following documentary film: Rivers of Change: The Legacy of Five Unheralded Women in Montgomery and their Struggle for Justice and Dignity directed by William Dickerson-Waheed and produced by Cosmo-D Productions in 2007. The director of the film, Dickerson-Waheed, is quoted on page 87.

I only mention these minor quibbles because I felt there should be a few critical remarks somewhere in this review in order to balance the numerous positive observations from me and other sources. This book is highly recommended. For young adults as well as adults who still feel young.

PS. For more information about the civil rights movement, see the following films:

** The Untold Story of Emmett Louis Till (2005)

** Scottsboro: An American Tragedy (2005)

** The Rosa Parks Story (2002)

** Betty & Coretta (2013)

  

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Phillip Hoose,

Claudette Colvin: Twice Toward Justice,

Farrar Strauss Giroux 2009, Square Fish 2011, 150 pages

 

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