It would appear that the descendants of Esau, having at first sought an alliance with the Ishmael ites among the mountains of Edom, afterwards succeeded in forcing them to leave their strong holds and migrate to the deserts of Arabia. After a long interval the Ishnsaelites returned, and, having expelled the Edomites (or Idzimeans), took possession of their ancient country. The date of this conquest is unknown ; but it was pro bably about the time of the second captivity ; for then the Persians were all-powerful in Central Asia, and would naturally drive back the Arab tribes that had settled there (cf. Diodor. Sic., ii. 48) ; and then also we know that the Idurneans, as if driven from their own mountains, settled in Southern Palestine. But be this as it may, we learn that, about B.C. 312, Antigonus, one of the successors of Alexander the Great, sent an army against the Nabatheans of Petra ; the city was taken and plundered, in the absence of the men, who were at the time attending a great fair in another locality ; on the retreat of the army, how ever, with their booty, they were attacked and cut to pieces by the Nabatheans. Another expe dition was sent, but was unsuccessful (Diod. Sic., xix. 104-11o). At this period the Nabatheans, like their forefathers, were rich in flocks and herds ; they were also, like the Ishmaelites in the time of Jacob, the carriers of spices and merchan dise between Arabia and Egypt ; and for the pro tection of their wealth and the furtherance of their commerce, they had erected strong cities in the interior of their country Edom, and on the shores of the lElanitic Gulf. Idumea Proper, or Edom, now became the centre of their influence and power. They gradually advanced in civilisation and commercial enterprise until nearly the whole traffic of Western Asia was in their hands (Diod. ii. 48-5o ; iii. 42, 43)- From their capital, Petra, caravan roads radiated in all directions—eastward to the Persian Gulf and Mesopotamia ; northward to Percea, Damascus, and Palmyra ; westward to Palestine and Phoenicia; and southward to the seaports on the YElanitic Gulf and Red Sea, and to Egypt (see Tabula Peutingeriana ; Tab. Theo dosiana ; Strabo, xvi., pp. ; Forster, Geogr. of Arabia, i. 222). When a new route for commerce between the East and the West was opened through Egypt, the Nabatheans became its determined opponents. They built war galleys and plundered the merchant fleets in the Red Sea ; and they also attacked and pillaged such caravans as ventured to convey the spices of Arabia, and the merchandise of Persia and Syria, by any other way than their own (Diod. Sic., iii. 43 ; Strabo, xvi., p. 777 ; Arrian, PerzWus).
During the height of their power the country of the Nabatheans embraced the whole of Edom, the eastern shore of the rElanitic Gulf and the Red Sea to the parallel of the city of Medineh, the desert plain of Arabia to the mountains of Nejd ; while on the north-west and north it was bounded by Palestine and Bashan (Strabo, xvi. 767, 777, 779 ; I Maccab. v. 25-28 ; ix. 35 ; Diod. Sic., ii. ; Epiplian., adv. B•res., p. 142). It is true Josephus and Jerome state that the Nabatheans occupied the whole country between Egypt and the Euphrates ; but by Nabatheans they seem to have meant all the descendants of Ishmael (cf.
Reland, Pal., p. 90 ; Kalisch on Gen., p. 482). It is not known at what time the Nabatheans gave up the patriarchal form of government and elected a king. The first mention of a king is about B.C. 166, in the reign of Antiochus Epiphanes (2 Maccab. v. 8). All their kings appear to have been called either Arelas or Obodas, and the king dom was known among classic writers as the ' Kingdom of Arabia,' sometimes taking the addi tion Peiwza, apparently from the capital city Petra. Alexander Jannmus was defeated by Obodas, king of Arabia (Joseph. Antiq. xiii. 13. 5) ; and a few years later Antiochus Dionysius of Syria was killed in battle against the Arabians, and Aretas their king seized Damascus (xiii. 15. 1, 2 ; Bell. Yid. iv. 7, 8). The kings of Arabia are often men tioned in connection with the conquest and occu pation of the province of Syria by the Romans (Joseph. Antiq. xiv. 5. t ; xv. 6. 2 ; xvi. 7. 8). A few years before the Christian era a Roman expedition under the command of YElius Gallus, was sent into Arabia. The Nabathean king, Obodas, received him with professions of friend ship, and appointed his minister Syllxus to guide the army. By his treachery it was conducted through arid deserts until it was almost destroyed by thirst and disease (Strabo, xvi., p. 78o). Herod Antipas married a daughter of Aretas king of the Nabatheans (Matt. xiv. 3, 4) ; and it ap pears to have been the same Aretas who captured Damascus, and governed it by an ethnarch at the time of Paul's conversion (Acts ix. 25 ; 2 Con xi. 32). The kingdom of the Nabatheans was over thrown in A.D. to5 by Cornelius Palma, governor of Syria, and was annexed to the Roman empire (Dio. Cass., 6S. t4 ; Entrop. viii. 2. 9). Their commercial enterprise and wealth soon afterwards began to decline ; and when the fierce followers of Mohammed overran 'Western Asia, the cities of the Nabatheans were ruined, their country laid waste, and the remnant of the people in all proba bility resumed the nomad life of their ancestors, and were mixed up with the tribes of the desert (IDuNtEA ; PETRA ; ARETAS ; see Vincent's Com merce and Navigation of the Ancients, ii. 272, seq. ; Ritter, Pal. and Syr., i. Robinson, B. R., ii.158-166; Ritter, Gesch. des Pe tr. Arab. ; Quatre mere, Memoire cur les Nabat.) Th splendid rock temples and tombs of Petra, which have now for half a century attracted the attention and called forth the admiration of Eastern travellers, were the works of the Nabatheans ; and show that they surpassed all other Arab tribes in refinement as much as they did in commercial enterprise (Burckhardt's Travels in Syria, pref. vii., seq., pp. 421-434; Laborde, Mt. Sinai and Petra, pp. 150-217; Bartlett, Forty Days in the Desert, pp. 107-145; Handbook for Syria and Palestine, PP. For the later history and physical geography of the region once occupied by the Nabatheans, see the article IDUMEA ; and for fuller details, the authorities mentioned above.—J. L. P.