Getica). The Getica is based on the lost history of the Goths by C, and scholars
debate the extent of Iordanes’ borrowings. The Getica contains much geographical informa-
tion, beginning with a geographical introduction and including geographical digressions.
Iordanes’ geographical descriptions highlight the places important in Gothic history. His
introduction focuses on Scandza, according to Iordanes an island in the Northern Ocean
and the place of the origin of the Goths. Iordanes cites P and P M,
but the sources for most of his description of Scandza have not been identified. Some
scholars have suggested that he may have relied on Gothic historical and geographical
writers, but a consensus has not been reached.
Ed.: Th. Mommsen, Monumenta Germaniae historica. Auctores antiquissimi v. 5.1 (1882) 53–138.
C.C. Mierow, The Gothic History of Jordanes 2nd ed. (1915; repr. 1960, 2006); RE 9.2 (1916) 1908–1929,
A. Kappelmacher; KP 2.1439 (#1), M. Fuhrmann; PLRE 3 (1992) 713–714; OCD3 798, P.J. Heather;
Natalia Lozovsky, “The Earth Is Our Book”: Geographical Knowledge in the Latin West ca. 400– 1000 (2000);
BNP 6 (2005) 917–918 (#1), P.L. Schmidt.
Natalia Lozovsky
Iouba II of Mauretania, C. Iulius (ca 20 BCE – 24 CE)
King of Mauretania and Libya, an eminent scholar who
wrote in Greek (P 5.16). Son of Iouba I and prisoner
of C in 46, along with his pro-Pompeian father,
Iouba II became a friend and client of A and a
Roman citizen, renamed C. Iulius. He married Kleopatra
Sele ̄ne ̄, daughter of M. Antonius and K, and
was restored to his father’s throne in 25 BCE. Thoroughly
Greco-Roman by his education among the Roman oli-
garchy, and moreover Punic-speaking, he developed this
double culture in his kingdom. With his extensive
resources, he sent exploratory missions to the Canary
islands (fr.44), to seek the source of the Nile which he
supposed was in the Atlas mountains (fr.38a). Iouba dis-
covered the plant euphorbia (D 3.82.1)
and developed and established the “Getulian purple” industry from orchil (indigenous to
Mogador).
A prolific author (Souda I-399), aided by numerous collaborators, Iouba wrote many
compilations: On theatre (17 books), On painting (eight books), On the history of Rome (two or four
books), and on cultural comparative history On Similitudes (15 books), treating parallel cus-
toms, manners, words, etc. between different peoples, especially Greek vs. Roman. This
broad natural-anthropological perspective seems typical of Iouba’s cultural conception as
shown in the remains of his three ethnological works Libuka (at least three books), Assuriaka
(two books derived from B) and Arabika (on southern countries from Egypt and
“Ethiopia” up to India). He collected many data on natural history and treated zoology
(frr.3, 40, 58, 70, 71), botany (frr.2, 62–69), and mineralogy (frr. 72 – 79) in later works.
Unfortunately only 100 fragments survive, despite his immeasurable influence on Greek (as
P, Athe ̄naios, and A who copies him in maybe 50 chapters of NA) and
Latin writers (Pliny quotes him 37 times – e.g., 8.4 on the nature of elephant tusks: horn
[ Iouba] or tooth [H]). Mentioned among the auctores externi for 16 books, he is
Iouba II (inv. 1944.100.81120)
Iouba II © Courtesy of the American Numismatic Society
Numismatic Society
IOUBA II OF MAURETANIA, C. IULIUS