The Nabataeans (iD3]) are possibly identical with the Nebaioth (nv3i) of O T (so Jos. Ant. I. xii. 4. The main difficulty is the unvarying distinctness of the final consonants o and n). They were prob- ably of Arab race, but used the Aram, language for writing and inscriptions (Noldeke in Scheukel, BL, 1872, s.v. Nabatiier, and in ZDMG xvii. 703 sqq., XXV. 122 sqq.). We first meet with them as a formidable power in connexion with the wars of Antigonus, B.C. 312, centred in the former Edomite stronghold of Sela (Nabat. ' Sal,' Gr. lUrpa, hence the name for their country, 'Apa/Sia ^ vphs t^ Uh-pi^ or ' Arabia Petraea '), whence their power gradually extended itself N. and S. Their first known iiiler is the Aretas of 2 Mac 5", with whom Jason y,&s imprisoned (^K\ei<r$els) or, per- haps, ' accused ' (adojiting the conjecture ^/tXTjffeJj), B.C. 169. A. is rupaffoi, not yet a recognised king. A few years later the Nabatfeans appear as friendly to the Maccabaean party (1 Mac 5» 9*>). With the decay of the Gr. kingdoms of Syria and Egypt the Nabatieans increase in power ; about B.C. 105 their ' king ' Erotimus ' nunc Aegyptum nunc Syriara infestabat magnumque nomen Arabum viribus finitimorum exsanguibus fecorat ' (Trog. Pomp. ap. Justin, XXXIX. V. 5-6). By B.C. 85 A. lU. is master of Dama.scus ; to him belong the coins BaaMui 'Aph-ov 'tMWrjvos struck at Dama-scus (Schurer, HJP I. ii. 353, n. 11). He took the side of Hyrcanus against Aristobulus, B.C. 65-62, and in the latter year was attacked by Scaurus whom Pompey had left as lej^ate of Syria ; Scaurus obtained a nominal submission and a payment of money {.1 oa. Ant. XIV. v. 1 j JBJl. viii. 1). Damascus hadalrca<ly fallen into Rom. hands {Ant. XIV. ii. 3; BJ I. vi. 2), in which it remained, with the excep- tion to be noticed below, as part of the prov. of Syria, but with certain liberties of its own (for proof in detail see Schiirer, n- 14, in part modifying Mommsen's important note. Provinces, Eng. tr. vol. ii. p. 148 sq.). A. III. was succeeded by Malchus (c. 60-28), Obodas II. (c. 28-9 B.C.), and A. IV. (c. 9 B.C.-A.D. 40), the subject of the present article.
His original name was Aeneas, but he assumed the name of A. on taking the kingdom (Jos. Ant. XVI. ix. 4). In B.C. 4 he sends some unruly auxili- aries to aid the expedition of Varus against the Jews {BJ II. V. 1 ; Ant. XVII. x. 9). After A.D. 28 he attacked and defeated Herod Antipas, partly in revenge for the divorce of his daughter by the latter (see Heeodias, and Jos. Ant. xvill. v. 1, 2 ; the victory was transferred in Christian legend to Abgar of Ede.s.'ia ; Gutschniidt, Ktcine Schri/ten, iii. 31). Tiberius ordered Vitellius, propraetor of Syria, to chastise A. for this attack, but the news of Tiberiu.s' death (A.D. 37) put an end to the ex- pedition (,Jos. ilAd. § 3).
This brings us to the period of St. Paul's escape,
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which was within 3 years ot his first vi.sit lo tlie Church at Jems., which latter again was within 14 years of the visit recorded in Gal 2. Taking the latter (against Ramsay's view, St. Paul the Traveller, but see Sanday in Expositor, Feb. and Apr. 1896) as identical with that of Ac 15, and working back with the data of the Ac from the arrival of Fkstus, A.D. 60, we time Gal 2 about the j'ear 51. ' Fourteen years ' previous, i.e. about 38, comes St. Paul's first visit to the Church of Jerus., and the three previous years again, viz. 38, 37, and 36, bring us to the time of his conversion, and cover the time of his escape from Damascus.
At some time, then, during the three years in question, Dama-scus had come under A. It cannot have been long before, as there are coins of Damas- cus with the image and superscription of Tiberius down to A.D. 34 ; but there are none with those of Gains or Claudius. The image of Nero begins in 62-63. The inference is natural that the acces- sion of Gains marks the transfer. That A. could have seized it by force in the face of Vitellius is out of the question. But it is not improbable that it was granted to him by the new emperor. Gaius was not kindly disposed towards Herod Antipas, and would not be unlikely to grant a mark of imperial favour to his bitter enemy. It is true that the deposition and banishment of Herod took place only in the summer of 39 (Schurer, I. ii. 36n.), a date scarcely early enough for St. Paul's escape from Damascus. But the grant to Agrippa of the tetrarchy of Philip and Lysanias, wiUi the title of king, appears to have been one of Caligula's first acts {Ant. XVIII. vL 10), and in 38 the emperor granted an Ituraean principality to Soemus (Dio Cass. lix. 12). A simLlar grant may well have been made to Aretas.
A. must have lived tUI about A.D. 40, as of the 20 dated Aretas-inscriptions of el-Hegr, two be- long to his 48th year, as also do certain coins. No other Nabataean king has left so rich a legacy of coins and inscriptions. On both, his stanuing title is Rakem-ammeh, ' lover of his people ' (the contra.st with the ^iXAXtjc of A. III. supr. is suggestive). Under him the NabaUean kingdom extended from the Euphrates to the Red Sea (cf. Jos. Ant. I. xii. 4). By 62 Damascus had again been taken over by the Romans, and belonged to the province of Syria when, in 106, the Nabataean kingdom itself was added to the empire as the province of Arabia.