An African king in the Roman empire

He was barely a toddler when he was paraded as a captive in a Roman triumph in 46 BC, but young North African Prince Juba went on to marry a daughter of Antony and Cleopatra and rule a kingdom close to his original homeland. In this episode of the History Extra podcast, Andrew Kenric, author of Rex Juba Fifteen Glimpses of an African King, unravels his amazing life in conversation with David Musgrove. I am joined by Dr. Andrew Kenrick, who is author of Rex Juba, 15 Glimpses of an African King, and we're going to be talking about a very interesting character called Juba. But your book, Andrew, starts with a really evocative description of a Roman triumph of 46 BC, which Jiba was involved in. Can you describe

The Roman triumph of forty six BC for me, please. Of course. So I mean, when you say the triumph of forty six BC, forty six BC was unusual because it had four triumphs, not just one triumph in in the April. And that's because Julius Caesar returned triumphant after the Roman Civil War. I mean declared victory over not one but four different enemies. And as a result, threw himself separate triumphs. And just to put this in context, I guess, a triumph, I always describe it as it's kind of the highest accolade a Roman general could have. I always describe it as the homecoming for a football team when a football team parades through the city on top of a double decker bus. Cheered on by their supporters. And like I said, this is the highest accolade that a Roman general could have. And Julius Caesar had four in very quick succession. And the one that I open my book with is what's called his African triumph, which was technically a triumph celebrated over his arch enemy Pompey, but was officially celebrated over this character called Juba the First of Numidia. And with these triumphs, the Roman generals try to try and outdo each other. And they were amazing spectacles. So great opportunities for one upmanship. And so we start with this triumph And it was this noisy, exciting for the Romans, certainly, affair. So it would have involved this huge parade where all the booty from the from the campaign was paraded through Rome on great wagons. So piled high with gold and treasure and things that had been looted effectively from North Africa in this case.

There would have also been exotic plants paraded through, carried through on on on the back of these wagons, and animals, all sorts of exotic animals that the Romans had captured and brought back to show the people of Rome. The Romans were particularly obsessed with elephants. They were really interested in elephants. So Jubas I The king of Numidia, he had an army with a great many elephants in it. So Julius Caesar brought sixty-four of those back to Rome, and there was this parade of sixty-four elephants. And somehow they'd been coerced, if you if you believe the writers, to carry torches in their upheld trunks as they kind of paraded through the city. There's all sorts of other kind of quick, so there were placards that had paintings depict famous moments from the battle. So the point at which Jeby the first dies in kind of in the aftermath of one of the battles, for example, would have been shown the the points where Cato and Pompey die would also have been painted and carried aloft. And then there would have been a parade of all the captives. So loads of slaves that would have been taken would be paraded through in in chains or or kind of manacles through the city streets. And amongst those but have also included any defeated leaders, the kings and queens and and and their families that would been captured. They would be paraded as well. And that's how our main character of our story, Juba the second.

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