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The great Roman statesman Julius Caesar had affairs with many different women. One of them was Eunoë, the wife of King Bogud of Mauretania.
Queen Eunoë of Mauretania was the wife of Bogud, King of Western Mauretania, who reigned on the North of modern-day Morocco (West of the Moulouya river). Eunoë was originally Moorish and her birth name was Ausnufa; her Greek royal name indicates that her family was part of the Hellenized Mauretanian nobility. She was of very noble lineage: the Roman historian Suetonius mentions her alongside Cleopatra of Egypt.
Sometime during his reign, her husband Bogud organised an expedition to explore the Atlantic coast. He apparently went further than the borders of his Kingdom, all the way to the tropics. When he came back, he presented Eunoë gigantic reeds and asparagus he had found.
Bogud was an ally of Julius Caesar during the Roman Civil War, and several ancient historians mention that Eunoë had an affair with Caesar. When exactly their affair occurred is uncertain: either while he was in Africa, or later, during his campaign in Spain, where Bogud was accompanying him.
Before coming to Africa, Caesar had spent several months in Egypt, with Cleopatra, his most famous lover, with whom he had a child. Eunoë thus replaced Cleopatra in his affections.
Bogud, Eunoë’s husband, certainly knew about the affair between his wife and Caesar, and he apparently didn’t do anything to stop it. Anyway, he profited a lot from the rich presents she received from Caesar.
The affair between Eunoë and Caesar inspired many historical novels, in which she is often compared to Cleopatra, another queen who became Caesar’s lover.
