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Short description

Hardy and swift horse archers from the Nabataean kingdom.

Description

Immediately following the dissolution of Alexander's empire one of his generals, Antigonus The-One-Eyed, briefly rose to a position of power in Syria. He aspired to defeat his rival, Ptolemy, whose power base was in Egypt. Antigonus' plan for success had two components: military and economic, and the mountain top settlement of Selah and the Nabataean people figured in both. By this time the Nabataeans had not only made a name for themselves as one of the principal trading powers in the region, they had also established a monopoly on bitumen which they harvested from the Dead Sea. They shipped this product to Egypt where it was essential in the embalming process. Antigonus felt that if he could gain control of the Nabataean stronghold of Selah, the hub of the major caravan routes in the region, then he would gain control over the frankincense and bitumen market as well. This would mean that he would not only command access to and from Egypt but he would have in his possession commodities more valuable to the Egyptians than gold.

However, Antigonus did not take into consideration the resistance that the Nabataeans would put up. The historian, Diodorus Siculus, records how Antigonus dispatched his friend, Athenaeus, along with 4,000 infantry and 600 cavalry to Selah to conquer the Nabataeans and gain control of the Gaza-Sinai trade route, thus checking Egypt's access to Syria and Arabia. The expedition reached Selah under cover of night and discovered that most of the male population was away at a market, most likely in nearby Busheira, the capital of Edom, leaving the women and children on the top of Selah Mountain for protection. The army attacked and killed a number of old men, women, and children and made off with a number of prisoners, 500 talents of silver, as well as quantities of frankincense and myrrh. Within an hour the Nabataean men had returned, taken stock of the situation, and were in hot pursuit of the invaders. Athenaeus, not believing that the Nabataeans would return so soon, had been careless in setting out guards. This proved to be a fatal mistake. He and his army were massacred, with only 50 of the cavalry able to return to Antingonus.

With their people and property recovered, the Nabataeans returned to their rock fortress and drafted a protest note to Antigonus. This set the pattern for their preferring to deal with their powerful neighbours through diplomacy rather than confrontation. Antigonus blamed the whole affair on his friend, the dead Athenaeus, whom he claimed had acted without orders. While drafting this letter, he was busily organising a second attack, this one to be led by his son Demetrious-the-Besieger. But Antigonus had not deceived the Nabataeans and the Greek army marched for three days across the trackless desert. As soon as Nabataean spies sighted Demetrious' troops, they set off fire signals that flashed from mountain to mountain. Being forewarned, the Nabataeans deposited what they could not carry on Selah under a strong guard. Then they gathered up their flocks and the rest of their possessions and fled into the desert. After a one-day battle, Demetrious failed to take the rocky fortress.

It is interesting to note that by the 4th century BC, the Nabataeans had moved from being merchants and pirates in the Red Sea to also operating out of ports on the Mediterranean Sea where the European powers began to experience losses to their ships. During this period the Nabataeans either used appeasement or formed alliances with whichever of the combatants could give them the best advantage. When necessary they would fight but only as a last resort. Gradually they expanded their sphere of influence west into the Negev to Wadi al-Arish and beyond into Egypt where they maintained an outpost in Wadi Tumilat. Following their caravans north, they occupied many major centers on the desert route. Obodas I became the next ruler of the Nabataeans, (96-86 BC) and he continued his father's expansion by moving on northward into Syria as Seleucid rule disintegrated. Obodas managed to ambush Alexander Jannaeus near Gadara, just east of the Sea of Galilee. Using a mass of camel riders, he forced Jannaeus into a deep valley where the Nabataeans completed the ambush and gained their revenge over loosing Gaza.

Around 86 BC the Seleucid ruler Antiochus XII Dionysus mounted an invasion against Obodas I. Both Antiochus and Obodas died in battle, but the Seleucid army was utterly defeated but the Nabataean Empire was saved. Obodas was buried in the Negev, at a place that was renamed in honour, Obodat (modern Avdat). Such was his renown that it is believed that he was deified after his death. As Seleucid rule disintegrated in the north, Aretas III (86 - 62 BC), a son of Obodas I continued Nabataean expansion and in 85 BC occupied the great city of Damascus at the request of its citizens. Now Aretas III was not only the ruler of the nomadic Nabataeans but also the ruler of the world class city of Damascus. Suddenly the backward nomadic Nabataeans were thrust onto the stage of world politics. Aretas' nomadic desert background was obviously a difficult issue, so to change his image from that of a backward nomad and desert brigand he tried to underline that he was heir to the Greek Seleucids. Aretas had coins minted with his image in the Greek style and his name in Greek instead of the Nabataean Arabic. To make his Hellenistic pretensions still clearer, he gave himself the epithet 'Philhellene.' The impact of these changes was so powerful, that 85 BC marks the pivotal change when Nabataeans started to rapidly move from being nomadic to becoming urban dwellers.

The Nabataeans ruled Damascus for over a dozen years but shortly after 72 BC, the Armenian King Tigranes (son of Mithradites VI of Pontus) took Damascus and the Nabataeans retreated peacefully. Tigranes then vacated Damascus in 69 BC to deal with a Roman threat against his own capital, and the opportunistic Nabataeans re-occupied it again, controlling it for a number of years. We know this from the Biblical record that tells us that Damascus was under a Nabataean governor during the time of the apostle Paul. (2 Corinthians 11:32-33) The death of Alexander Jannaeus' widow, Alexandra, in 67 BC ultimately changed everything for the Nabataeans. Alexandra's elder son Hyranus II, was driven from his throne by his brother Aristobulus and, amazingly enough he took refuge in the court of Aretas III at Selah. Aretas' espousal of Hyranus' cause soon brought the Nabataeans face to face with the rising power of Rome.

When Pompey annexed Syria in 64 BC, his legate Marcus Aemilius Scaurus immediately turned his attention to Judea. Pompey had planned to move next against the Nabataeans when the continuing feud among the Jewish rulers deflected his attention away. In 63 BC Pompey personally took control of Jerusalem and sent Aristobulus and his family (the Jewish high priest) to Rome in chains. Hyranus was then confirmed as high priest and ethnarch but denied the title of king. Having settled the Jewish trouble, Pompey now turned his attention to the wealthy Nabataeans. He dispatched Aemilius Scaurus, who marched through the desert land but his army soon became very hungry, thirsty, and exhausted. The expedition was called off at the last moment when a rider appeared on the scene reporting to the Romans of the murder of Mithradites VI, the king of Armenia, by his son Tigranes. Pompey immediately wanted to disengage from the Nabataeans to deal with this last vestige of the Pontic threat. The wily Nabataeans seized the opportunity and offered the Romans 300 talents of silver if they would leave. Pompey accepted and in doing so set a tempting precedent for later Roman generals who wished to improve their personal finances.

Around 62 BC, another Obodas seems to have become a Nabataean ruler, the only evidence being a handful of coins. His heir, Malichus I (59 - 30 BC) played a dangerous game of politics in the hectic changes of early Roman rule. He judged rightly by backing Julius Caesar against Pompey, but then missed his footing in joining Caesar's assassins and their Parthian allies against Antony and Octavian. However, with a skilful blend of wealth and diplomacy learned from his predecessors, he was able to buy his kingdom out of subjection to Rome. When Antony was given the eastern areas of Rome's dominions, the opportunistic Cleopatra demanded as a gift, both Judea (a dependency ruled by Herod the Great) and the still independent kingdom of the Nabataeans, who were now considered allies of Rome. Despite Antony's infatuation, it was one of the few of Cleopatra's many requests that Antony turned down. This left the Nabataeans to be their own masters. In order to prove their alliance with Rome, in 47 BC, Malichus I honoured a request from Julius Caesar to provide him with 2000 cavalry during the Roman dictator's Alexandrian campaign.

Obodas III then became the ruler in 30 BC, and ruled until 9 BC. Strabo's 'Geography', written in the early 1st century AD tells about Nabataean life under Obodas III.

'The Nabataeans are a sensible people, and are so much inclined to acquire possessions that they publicly fine anyone who has diminished them, and also confer honours on anyone who has increased them. Since they have but few slaves, they are served by their kinsfolk for the most part, or by one another, or by themselves, so that the custom extends even to their ruler. They prepare common meals together in groups of thirteen persons, and they have two girl-singers for each banquet. Their leader holds many drinking-bouts in magnificent style, but no one drinks more than eleven cupfuls, each time using a different golden cup. The ruler is so democratic that, in addition to serving himself, he sometimes even serves the others in his turn. He often renders an account of his leadership in the popular assembly, and sometimes his method of life is examined."

Strabo reveals how the Nabataeans had changed in the intervening years. Strabo's information came from his friend Athenodorus, a Stoic philosopher, tutor of Caesar Augustus, and a native of Petra. These excerpts from Strabo's Geography describe Petra approaching the zenith of its power.

"The capital of the Nabataeans is called Petra. It is situated on a spot, which is surrounded and fortified by a smooth and level rock, which externally is abrupt and precipitous, but within there are abundant springs of water both for domestic purposes and for watering gardens. Beyond the city-enclosure, the country is for the most part a desert. Athenodorus . . . used to relate with surprise that he found many Romans and also many other strangers residing there . . . frequently engaged in litigation, both with one another and with the natives; but that the natives had never any dispute amongst themselves, and lived together in perfect harmony... A great part of the country is fertile and produces everything except oil of olives. Instead of it they use the oil of sesame."