The Nabataeans and Petra

The Nabataeans (also known as Nabateans) were an ancient Arab people living in the southern Levant and northern Arabia. Their most famous settlement was Raqmu—today called Petra, in Jordan—which was likely their capital. The region they controlled, known as Nabatene, stretched from the Euphrates River to the Red Sea. They became a distinct civilization and political force between the 4th and 2nd centuries BC, building their kingdom around a loose network of trade routes that made them wealthy and influential across the ancient world.

Their name may come from the same root as the Akkadian word *nabatu*, meaning "to shine brightly."

The first known mention of the Nabataeans comes from 312/311 BC, when the Greek general Athenaeus, serving under Antigonus I, attacked them at Sela or possibly Petra but failed. The Seleucid officer Hieronymus of Cardia recorded this in a battle report. Around 50 BC, the Greek historian Diodorus Siculus cited Hieronymus and noted that both the Seleucids and later the Romans tried to seize their profitable trade. Their architecture shows Hellenic influence. They wrote a letter to Antigonus in Syriac script, and Aramaic remained the language of their coins and inscriptions as they grew into a kingdom, expanding north into the fertile land east of the Jordan River as the Seleucids weakened. They took over Hauran, and around 85 BC, their king Aretas III became ruler of Damascus and Coele-Syria.

The kingdom of Osroene in Upper Mesopotamia, with its capital at Edessa, was founded in 134 BC after the Seleucid Empire collapsed. It was established by a Nabataean tribe, and its ruling dynasty, the Abgarids, came from that tribe. Osroene shifted between semi-autonomy and independence, served as a client state of the Parthian and Roman Empires, and was fully absorbed into the Roman Empire as a province in 214 AD.

Petra was built rapidly in the 1st century BC and had an estimated population of 20,000. The Nabataeans were allies of the early Hasmoneans against the Seleucids but later became rivals of the Judaean dynasty, contributing to the unrest that led Pompey to intervene in Judaea. According to historian Paul Johnson, many Nabataeans were forcefully converted to Judaism by the Hasmonean king Alexander Jannaeus. After putting down a local rebellion, Jannaeus invaded and occupied Nabataean towns in Moab and Gilead and imposed tribute. King Obodas I anticipated Alexander’s attack and ambushed his forces near Gaulane, destroying the Judaean army in 90 BC.

The Roman military struggled against the Nabataeans. In 62 BC, Marcus Aemilius Scaurus accepted a bribe of 300 talents to end his siege of Petra, partly due to the difficult terrain and lack of supplies. Hyrcanus II, a friend of King Aretas, was sent by Scaurus to negotiate peace. As a result, Aretas kept all his possessions, including Damascus, and became a Roman vassal.

In 32 BC, during King Malichus I’s reign, Herod the Great, backed by Cleopatra, started a war against Nabataea. Herod first plundered Nabataean territory with a large cavalry force and took Dium. After this defeat, the Nabataeans regrouped near Canatha in Syria but were attacked and routed. Cleopatra’s general Athenion sent Canathans to help the Nabataeans, and they crushed Herod’s army, which fled to Ormiza. A year later, Herod’s army overran Nabataea. After an earthquake in Judaea, the Nabataeans rebelled and invaded, but Herod crossed the Jordan River to Philadelphia (modern Amman), and both sides set up camp. The Nabataeans under Elthemus refused to fight, so Herod attacked their camp. A confused battle followed, and the Nabataeans were defeated. Those who retreated to their defenses were besieged, and some surrendered. The remaining Nabataeans offered 500 talents for peace, but Herod refused. Lacking water, they were forced out of their camp and defeated again. Later, King Aretas IV defeated Herod Antipas, son of Herod the Great, in battle after Antipas planned to divorce Aretas’s daughter Phasaelis.

As an ally of Rome, the Nabataean kingdom thrived throughout the 1st century. Its power extended far into Arabia along the Red Sea to Yemen, and Petra became a cosmopolitan marketplace, though its trade declined with the rise of the eastern route from Myos Hormos to Coptos on the Nile. Under the Pax Romana, the Nabataeans were annexed into the Roman Empire by Emperor Trajan in 106 AD. Their distinct culture, marked by finely painted pottery, was absorbed into Greco-Roman culture. They converted to Christianity during the Byzantine period. They have been called one of the most gifted peoples of the ancient world and one of the "most unjustly forgotten."