DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.4996#0134
NOTICES OF PETItA. Ill
what period is uncertain, the Edonxites would seem to have been
expelled from the southern part of their own territory, and from their
chief city, by the Nabathoeans, another nomadic Arabian tribe, who
had spread themselves from the Euphrates to the borders of Palestine,
and who gradually established the kingdom of Arabia Petrsea, which
subsisted in nominal independence till reduced by Trajan to the
Roman sway. There are various notices of Arabia Petrtea and its
rulers in Josephus. Antigonus, one of Alexander's successors, after
reducing Syria and Palestine, sent also an expedition against this
mountain kingdom ; Athenseus, its leader, succeeded in, surprising
the city, during the absence of the men at a mask ; but was, in his
turn, surprised, and routed with great loss, and, on a second attack,
the inhabitants, being forewarned, placed their wealth in a place of
security, and dispersed into the fastnesses of the mountains. One
of the sovereigns of Arabia Petroaa, Aretas, mentioned by St. Paul,
had even succeeded in obtaining temporary possession of Damascus,
by defeating the army of Herod Antipas, the Jewish monarch, and
profiting by the weakness and distraction of the Roman government
in Syria.
The commerce of Petra is, doubtless, of very ancient origin. Dr.
Vincent, in his " Commerce and Navigation of the Ancients,"
says: " The caravans, in all ages, from Minea, in the interior of
Arabia, and from Gerrha, on the Gulf of Persia, from Hadramant,
on the ocean, and some even from Labea, in Yemen, appear to have
pointed to Petra as a common centre ; and from Petra the trade
seems to have again branched out into every direction, to Egypt,
Palestine, and Syria, through Arsinoe, Gaza, Tyre, Jerusalem,
Damascus, and a variety of intermediate routes, all terminating
on the Mediterranean. There is every proof that is requisite to
show that the Tyrians and Sidonians were the first merchants who
introduced the produce of India to all the nations which encircled
the Mediterranean ; so is there the strongest evidence to prove that
the Syrians obtained all their commodities from Arabia. But if
Arabia was the centre of this commerce, Petra was the point to
which all the Arabians tended from the three sides of their vast
what period is uncertain, the Edonxites would seem to have been
expelled from the southern part of their own territory, and from their
chief city, by the Nabathoeans, another nomadic Arabian tribe, who
had spread themselves from the Euphrates to the borders of Palestine,
and who gradually established the kingdom of Arabia Petrsea, which
subsisted in nominal independence till reduced by Trajan to the
Roman sway. There are various notices of Arabia Petrtea and its
rulers in Josephus. Antigonus, one of Alexander's successors, after
reducing Syria and Palestine, sent also an expedition against this
mountain kingdom ; Athenseus, its leader, succeeded in, surprising
the city, during the absence of the men at a mask ; but was, in his
turn, surprised, and routed with great loss, and, on a second attack,
the inhabitants, being forewarned, placed their wealth in a place of
security, and dispersed into the fastnesses of the mountains. One
of the sovereigns of Arabia Petroaa, Aretas, mentioned by St. Paul,
had even succeeded in obtaining temporary possession of Damascus,
by defeating the army of Herod Antipas, the Jewish monarch, and
profiting by the weakness and distraction of the Roman government
in Syria.
The commerce of Petra is, doubtless, of very ancient origin. Dr.
Vincent, in his " Commerce and Navigation of the Ancients,"
says: " The caravans, in all ages, from Minea, in the interior of
Arabia, and from Gerrha, on the Gulf of Persia, from Hadramant,
on the ocean, and some even from Labea, in Yemen, appear to have
pointed to Petra as a common centre ; and from Petra the trade
seems to have again branched out into every direction, to Egypt,
Palestine, and Syria, through Arsinoe, Gaza, Tyre, Jerusalem,
Damascus, and a variety of intermediate routes, all terminating
on the Mediterranean. There is every proof that is requisite to
show that the Tyrians and Sidonians were the first merchants who
introduced the produce of India to all the nations which encircled
the Mediterranean ; so is there the strongest evidence to prove that
the Syrians obtained all their commodities from Arabia. But if
Arabia was the centre of this commerce, Petra was the point to
which all the Arabians tended from the three sides of their vast