Juba II and the Hunt for the Source of the Nile

Juba II of Mauretania lived an extraordinary life: orphaned by Julius Caesar, raised by the emperor Augustus and married to the daughter of Antony and Cleopatra, before returning to North Africa to rule over the kingdom of Mauretania. He was famed in the ancient world as both a diplomat, a scholar-king and an explorer. Amongst his most interesting exploits was his search for the source of the River Nile, a mystery that perplexed and fascinated ancient geographers - and so at the end of the first century BC, Juba personally set off at the head of an expedition in search of this most elusive of rivers, but what did he find and why was he so obsessed with the Nile? Join author Dr Andrew Kenrick as he introduces you to the subject of his book, Rex Juba.

Dr Andrew Kenrick teaches Creative Non-Fiction at the University of Cambridge and CityLit in London, and he is the founder of the non-fiction magazine Hinterland. His interdisciplinary studies have taken him from ancient history and archaeology to the movie Gladiator and Roman cooking, as well as researching new methods for writing ancient biography. His debut book is Rex Juba, out in August.