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
***
Thanks for your kind words.
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