JUBA, the name of two kings of Numidia.
Juba I. (1st century B.C.), son and successor of Hiempsal, king of Numidia. During the civil wars at Rome he sided with Pompey, partly from gratitude because he had reinstated his father on his throne (Appian, B.C., i. 80), and partly from enmity to Caesar, who had insulted him at Rome by pulling his beard (Suet., Caesar, 71). Further, C. Scribonius Curio, Caesar’s general in Africa, had openly proposed, 50 B.C., when tribune of the plebs, that Numidia should be sold to colonists, and the king reduced to a private station. In 49 Juba inflicted on the Caesarean army a crushing defeat, in which Curio was slain (Vell. Pat. ii. 54; Caesar, B.C. ii. 40). Juba’s attention was distracted by a counter invasion of his territories by Bocchus the younger and Sittius; but, finding that his lieutenant Sabura was able to defend his interests, he rejoined the Pompeians with a large force, and shared the defeat at Thapsus. Fleeing from the field with the Roman general M. Petreius, he wandered about as a fugitive. At length, in despair, Juba killed Petreius, and sought the aid of a slave in despatching himself (46). Juba was a thorough savage; brave, treacherous, insolent and cruel. (See [Numidia].)
Juba II., son of the above. On the death of his father in 46 B.C. he was carried to Rome to grace Caesar’s triumph. He seems to have received a good education under the care of Augustus who, in 29, after Mark Antony’s death, gave him the hand of Cleopatra Selene, daughter of Antony and Cleopatra, and placed him on his father’s throne. In 25, however, he transferred him from Numidia to Mauretania, to which was added a part of Gaetulia (see [Numidia]). Juba seems to have reigned in considerable prosperity, though in A.D. 6 the Gaetulians rose in a revolt of sufficient importance to afford the surname Gaetulicus to Cornelius Lentulus Cossus, the Roman general who helped to suppress it. The date of Juba’s death is by no means certain; it has been put between A.D. 19 and 24 (Strabo, xvii. 828; Dio Cassius, li. 15; liii. 26; Plutarch, Ant. 87; Caesar, 55). Juba, according to Pliny, who constantly refers to him, is mainly memorable for his writings. He has been called the African Varro.
He wrote many historical and geographical works, of which some seem to have been voluminous and of considerable value on account of the sources to which their author had access: (1) Ῥωμαϊκὴ ἱστορία; (2) Ἀσσυριακά; (3) Λιβυκά; (4) De Arabia sive De expeditione arabica; (5) Physiologa; (6) De Euphorbia herba; (7) Περὶ ὀποῦ; (8) Περὶ γραφικῆς (Περὶ ζωγράφων); (9) Θεατρικὴ ἱστορία; (10) Ὁμοιότητες; (11) Περὶ φθορᾶς λέξεως; (12) Ἐπίγραμμα.
Fragments and life in Müller, Frag. Hist. Graec., vol. iii.; see also Sevin, Mém. de l’Acad. des Inscriptions, vol. iv.; Hullemann, De vita et scriptis Jubae (1846). For the denarii of Juba II. found in 1908 at El Ksar on the coast of Morocco see Dieudonné in Revue Numism. (1908), pp. 350 seq. They are interesting mainly as throwing light on the chronology of the reign.
JUBA, or Jub, a river of East Africa, exceeding 1000 m. in length, rising on the S.E. border of the Abyssinian highlands and flowing S. across the Galla and Somali countries to the sea. It is formed by the junction of three streams, all having their source in the mountain range N.E. of Lake Rudolf which is the water-parting between the Nile basin and the rivers flowing to the Indian Ocean.
Of the three headstreams, the Web, the Ganale and the Daua, the Ganale (or Ganana) is the central river and the true upper course of the Juba. It has two chief branches, the Black and the Great Ganale. The last-named, the most remote source of the river, rises in 7° 30′ N., 38° E. at an altitude of about 7500 ft., the crest of the mountains reaching another 2500 ft. In its upper course it flows over a rocky bed with a swift current and many rapids. The banks are clothed with dense jungle and the hills beyond with thorn-bush. Lower down the river has formed a narrow valley, 1500 to 2000 ft. below the general level of the country. Leaving the higher mountains in about 5° 15′ N., 40° E., the Ganale enters a large slightly undulating grass plain which extends south of the valley of the Daua and occupies all the country eastward to the junction of the two rivers. In this plain the Ganale makes a semicircular sweep northward before resuming its general S.-E. course. East of 42° E. in 4° 12′ N. it is joined by the Web on the left or eastern bank, and about 10 m. lower down the Daua enters on the right bank.
The Web rises in the mountain chain a little S. and E. of the sources of the Ganale, and some 40 m. from its source passes, first, through a cañon 500 ft. deep, and then through a series of remarkable underground caves hollowed out of a quartz mountain and, with their arches and white columns, presenting the appearance of a pillared temple. The Daua (or Dawa) is formed by the mountain torrents which have their rise S. and W. of the Ganale and is of similar character to that river. It has few feeders and none of any size. The descent to the open country is somewhat abrupt. In its middle course the Daua has cut a deep narrow valley through the plain; lower down it bends N.E. to its junction with the Ganale. The river is not deep and can be forded in many places; the banks are fringed with thick bush and dom-palms. At the junction of the Ganale and the Web the river is swift-flowing and 85 yards across; just below the Daua confluence it is 200 yds. wide, the altitude here—300 m. in a direct line from the source of the Ganale—being only 590 ft.