Su alcuni aspetti della storiografia di Giuba II di Mauretania: Ῥωμαικὴ ἀρχαιολογία e Ὀμοιότητες nelle vita plutarchea di Marcello

This article aims to investigate certain aspects of the historiographical production of Juba II, King of Mauretania, known through fragments of his early works, i.e. the Ῥωμαικὴ ἀρχαιολογία (History of Ancient Rome) and the Ὀμοιότητες (Resemblances), a treatise on linguistics. Here, we will attempt to reconstruct the chronological scope and topics covered in both works and discuss the close link between them. The study of the highly peculiar use of these two works in Plutarch's literary production may help to better outline their possible belonging to a unified historiographical project. We will see how Plutarch clearly relied on Juba's work: he explicitly used the Ῥωμαικὴ ἀρχαιολογία as a source, but it is likely that there are numerous unspoken linguistic references in the Life of Marcellus relating to key moments in the consul's life, which will be examined here, suggesting that they derive from Juba's Ὀμοιότητες. Through the analysis of numerous fragments of the Mauretanian king handed down by Plutarch, we will attempt to demonstrate the validity that the latter recognised in Juba as a source, even in contrast to other historiographical traditions. Through the specific case of the Life of Marcellus, we will outline Juba's important contribution to Plutarch's work, including his role as a collector and mediator of sources, expecially Greek ones, from which Plutarch drew.