Juba

1. King of Numidia in North Africa from 60–46 BC, notorious for his cruelty. He sided with Pompey in the civil war and defeated and killed Caesar's ally Gaius Scribonius Curio in 49 BC. He escaped after the republican defeat at Thapsus in 46, but, rejected by all sides, committed suicide.

2. Juba II, son of Juba (1), who while still an infant was led in Julius Caesar's triumph in 46 BC; he was brought up in Italy, and when grown up reinstated in Numidia, receiving in addition the kingdom of Mauretania. He married Cleopatra, the daughter of Mark Antony and the Egyptian queen Cleopatra, and died c. AD 23, being succeeded by his son Ptolemy. Juba was a man of great learning who sought to introduce Greek and Roman culture into his kingdom, and made a remarkable collection of artistic treasures. He wrote many books, in Greek (all lost), which are frequently cited by the Elder Pliny: they include a treatise on the medicinal plant euphorbia which he discovered growing on the slopes of Mount Atlas and named after his physician Euphorbus (brother of Antonius Musa, physician to the emperor Augustus).