Jews.1 Idumea, which name now included also the southern part of Judea, was henceforth governed by a succession of Jewish prefects. One of these, Antipater, an Idumean by birth, by the favour of Cæsar, was made procurator of all Judea; and his son, Herod the Great, became king over the Jews, including Idumea.2 Just before the siege of Jerusalem by Titus, bands of Idumeans threw themselves into the city, which they aided to fill with robbery and violence.3. From this time onward the Edomites, as a people, vanish from the pages of history; and in the next century Ptolemy limits their territory to the region west of the Dead Sea.1

But while the Edomites had thus been extending their limits in the Northwest, they had in turn been driven out from the southern portion of their own territory, and from their chief city itself, by the Nabatheans, an Arabian tribe, the descendants of Nabaioth the eldest son of Ishmael. This nomadic people had spread themselves over the whole of desert Arabia, from the Euphrates to the borders of Palestine, and finally to the Elanitic Gulf of the Red Sea. At what period they thus supplanted the Edomites, in their ancient possessions, is unknown; but so early as the time of Antigonus, one of Alexander's successors, who died 301 B. C., that prince, after having seized upon Syria and Palestine, sent two expeditions against the Nabatheans in Petra; the first commanded by Athe

1) See above, p. 424.

2) Joseph. Ant. XIV. 1, 3. ibid. 8. 5. XV. 7. 9. XVII. 11. 4.Hence Roman writers often speak of the whole of Palestine under the name of Idumea; see Reland Palaest. pp. 48, 49.

3) Jos. B. J. IV. 4. 1, 5. VII. 8. 1. 4) Ptolem. V. 16, 18ovuaía, ἥτις ἐστὶ πᾶσα ἀπὸ δύσεως τοῦ 'logdárov. Reland. Palaest. p. 462.

5) Gen. xxv. 13. Isa. lx. 7.

6) Joseph. Ant. I. 12. 4, Oros παῖδες Ισμαήλου πᾶσαν τὴν ἀπ ̓ Εἰφράτου καθήκουσαν πρὸς τὴν Ἐρυ θρὰν θάλασσαν κατοικοῦσι, Να βατηνὴν τὴν χώραν ὀνομάσαντες. εἰσὶ δὲ οὗτοι οἱ τῶν ̓Αράβων ἔθνος z. t. . Hieron. Quaest. in Gen. xxv. 13. Diod. Sic. XIX. 94. See more on the Nabatheans, in Reland Pal. p. 90, seq.

naeus, and the second by his own son, Demetrius.' At this time they were still essentially nomadic, and had apparently no king; but they had already begun to engage in commerce, and seem gradually to have become more fixed in their habits. In this way, during the following centuries, they grew up into the kingdom of Arabia Petraea, occupying very nearly the same territory which was comprised within the limits of ancient Edom. It probably took this appellation from the name of its metropolis Petra. A king of this country, Aretas, is mentioned as contemporary with Antiochus Epiphanes, just before the time of the Maccabees, about 166 B. C2

From this time onward to the destruction of Jerusalem, the sovereigns of Arabia Petraea, who usually bore the name of Aretas or Obodas, came into frequent contact with the Jews and Romans both in war and peace. The country and people are often mentioned by Josephus. Their sovereigns appear to have been in a measure dependent on the Roman emperors, though not directly subject to the Roman power. Obodas, six or eight years before the Christian era, was a man of indolent habits, and left the whole management of affairs to a favourite named Syllaeus.1 This latter demanded of Herod the Great the hand of his sister Salome; but his suit not being successful, he appears to have become inimical towards Herod, and

1) Diod. Sic. XIX. 94-98. 2) 2 Macc. v. 8.

3) Alexander Jannaeus was defeated by an Obodas about 93 B. C. Antiq. XIII. 13. 5. B. J. I. 4. 4. Antiochus Dionysius of Syria was killed in a battle in Arabia, and Aretas (apparently the victor) became king in Damascus; Ant. XIII. 15. 1, 2. B. J. I. 4. 7, 8. In the year 63 B. C. Scaurus, a general of Pompey, overran Arabia as far as to Petra, and then made peace

with Aretas; Ant. XIV. 5. 1. Dio Cass. XXXVII. 15. Two years later, about 61 B. C. Antipater induced Hyrcanus, son of Alexander Jannaeus, to take refuge with Aretas in Petra; Ant. XIV. 1. 4. B. J. I. 6. 2. In the early part of Herod's reign, the kingdom of Arabia was held by Malchus; Ant. XV. 6.2.

4) Jos. Ant. XVI. 7. 6. Strabo XVI. 4. 23, 24.

accused him some years afterwards before Augustus at Rome of hostilities and murders in Arabia. Herod however was able to turn the scale in his own favour, and Syllaeus was condemned to fine and punishment.1 Meantime Obodas was dead, and had been succeeded by Eneas, who took the name of Aretas, and was at length confirmed in his kingdom by Augustus; although the latter had at first intended to bestow Arabia on Herod.2

It was during the reign of the same Obodas, three or four years before the Christian era, that the celebrated expedition was sent by Augustus from Egypt into Arabia under Aelius Gallus, the friend of Strabo and then governor of Egypt. After various hindrances, Gallus arrived with his forces by water at Leuke Kome, the emporium of the Nabatheans. Here he was kindly received by order of king Obodas and his favourite Syllaeus, as allies of the Romans; and remained a summer and winter to refresh his troops, who were suffering from disease. He afterwards marched into the interior, but without visiting Petra; and after great delay and difficulty, arising from the bad faith and treachery of Syllaeus, he returned through Arabia Felix.1

The next Arabian king of whom we have any notice, is the Aretas mentioned by Paul as lord of Damascus, which he then governed by an ethnarch, about A. D. 38 or 39.5 Josephus gives of him the fur

1) Jos. Ant. XVI. 7. 6. ib. 9. 2-4. ib. 10. 8, 9. B. J. I. 28. 6. ib. 29.3. 2) Jos. Ant. XVI. 9. 4. ib. 10. 9. XVII. 3. 2.

3) Λευκή Κώμη, Albus Pagus, Strabo XVI. 4. 24. Arrian. Periplus Maris Erythr. ed. Hudson p. 11. Probably at or near Muweilih, near the mouth of the Gulf of 'Akabah, on the eastern coast. This place was already known to the

Romans in the fifth and sixth centuries as Mohaila; see Notit. Dignitat. ed. Panciroli p. 216. Reland Palaest. p. 230. See in general Vincent's Commerce and Navig. of the Ancients, Vol. II. pp. 258, 259, 295. Lond. 1807. 4.

4) Strabo XVI. 4. 22-24. Dio Cass. LIII. 29.

5) 2 Cor. xi. 32. Comp. Acts ix. 24, 25.

ther account, that Herod Antipas having espoused his daughter, repudiated her in order to marry Herodias ; a step for which he was reproved by John the Baptist.' Upon this, Aretas made war against Herod and totally destroyed his army; a judgment upon Herod, as many of the serious-minded Jews regarded it, for his murder of John. Vitellius, then proconsul of Syria, received orders to chastise Aretas; but while he was preparing for this expedition, and had sent forward some of his troops, news came of the death of Tiberius; upon. which he recalled his troops, and placing them in winter quarters, left the province. It was probably at this period, under the weak reign of Caligula, that Aretas, taking advantage of this supineness, made an incursion and seized the city of Damascus, which he held for a time in the manner related by Paul. It could have been, however, only a temporary possession; and the fact is not mentioned by any other writer.2

The nominal independence of the kingdom of Arabia, continued for some thirty years after the destruction of Jerusalem. Under the reign of Trajan, about A. D. 105, it was overrun and conquered by Cornelius Palma, then governor of Syria, and formally annexed to the Roman empire.3

The inhabitants of this region had early become extensively engaged in commerce, as the carriers of the rich products of the East between the Red Sea and the ports of the Phenicians. In the first expedition sent by Antigonus, the men of Petra were absent at a mart, and Athenaeus found in Petra a large quan

1) Matt. xiv. 3, 4. Mark vi. 17, 18. Luke iii. 19.

2) For a list of the sovereigns of Arabia Petraea, collected from Josephus, see Vincent's Commerce and Navig. of the Ancients, Vol. II. p. 272, seq.

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3) Dio Cass. LXVIII. 14, Kara δὲ τὸν αὐτὸν τοῦτον χρόνον (A. U. C. 853,) καὶ Πάλμας τῆς Συρίας ἄρχων τὴν ̓Αραβίαν τὴν πρὸς τῇ Πέτρα ἐχειρώσατο, καὶ Ῥωμαίων ὑπήκοον лolnoaτo. Amm. Marcell. XIV. 8. Eutropius VIII. 2, 9.

tity of frankincense and myrrh, and five hundred talents of silver.' Strabo relates, that the merchandise of India and Arabia was transported on camels from Leuke Kome to Petra, and thence to Rhinocolura (el'Arîsh), and other places.2 Under the Romans, this trade appears to have become still more prosperous. The country was rendered more accessible, and the passage of merchants and caravans facilitated, by military ways, and by the establishment of military .posts to keep in check the predatory hordes of the neighbouring deserts. One great road, of which traces still remain, had its direction northwards from Ailah to Petra, and thence to Damascus; from Petra a branch went off on the West of the Dead Sea, to Jerusalem, Askelon, and other parts of the Mediterranean.3 A line of military stations was established along this road, which served to protect it against incursions from the eastern desert; and some of these became the sites of towns.4

Early in the fourth century, the name of Palestine was occasionally extended so as to include this whole region; and in the beginning of the fifth century, we find introduced a new division of Judea and the adjacent countries, into Palæstina Prima, Secunda, et Tertia. The first comprised Jerusalem and the whole of Judea

1) Diod. Sic. XIX. 95. See above pp. 558, 559.

2) Strabo XVI. 4. 18, 23, 24.

3) See the Peutinger Tables; and compare Rennell's Compar. Geogr. of Western Asia I. p. 89, seq. Ritter Gesch. des Petr. Arabiens, in Abhandl. der Berl. Acad. 1824. Hist. phil. Kl. p. 204. Traces of this ancient road were found by Laborde south of Wady Musa; Voyage p. 62. (213.) North of Wady Musa its remains are in many places visible; see Burckhardt pp. 374, 419. Irby and Mangles pp. 371, 377, 460. The latter

travellers saw several mile-stones of the time of Trajan, and one of Marcus Aurelius; p. 461.

4) Thus in the "Notitiae Dignitatum" in the fifth or sixth century, we find "equites" stationed at Mohila, Aila, Hauana, Zodocatha, Arindela, Areopolis, etc. The Peutinger Tables have Hauara and Zadagatta on the great road between Aila and Petra. See Notitiae Dignitat. ed. Panciroli pp. 215, 216, 219, 220. Reland Palaest. pp. 230, 231. Ritter 1. c.

5) Onomast. arts. Ailah, Arcem, Cades, etc.