Juba II
Juba II
c. 50 b.c.-a.d.24
North African king of Numidia and Mauretania (modern Algeria and Morocco respectively) who sent an expedition to the Canary Islands. Son of Juba I (c. 85-46 b.c.), as a child he had been paraded through the streets of Rome after the defeat of his father. However, Octavian (the future Augustus Caesar; 63 b.c.- a.d. 14) befriended him and in 29 b.c. established him as ruler of Numidia, by then a Roman province. Four years later, Juba additionally became ruler over Mauretania, also a province of Rome. Husband of Cleopatra Selene—daughter of the famous Cleopatra VII (69-30 b.c.)—he wrote a number of scholarly works on history, geography, grammar, and drama. His expedition to the Canaries made the Romans aware of those islands, which had once been known to the Greeks.