Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume II.djvu/409

 NABATAEI. the captivity. They were the friends and allies of the Jews in their struggle for independence; for when Judas Maccabaeus, with his brother Jonathan, found them 3 days S. of the Jordan (cir. B. c. 1 64), they received him amicably, and gave him informa- tion which led to the deliverance of the oppressed Jews in Gilead from the Ammonites, under Timo- theus (Joseph. Ant. xii. 8. § 3; 1 Maccab. v. 24, &c.); and when preparing for an engagement with Uacchides (cir. b. c. 161), the same Jonathan pro- posed to place all their moveable property in their custody. (lb. xiii. 1. § 2 ; 1 Maccab. ix. 33.) But the earliest and fullest notice of this people and of their country occurs in Diodorus Siculus, who men- tions them frequently. In B.C. 312, Antigouus, having recovered Syria and Palestine out of the hands of Ptolemy, resolved on an expedition against the Nabataei, and detached his general Athenaeus on this service, with 4000 light-armed troops and 600 light cavalry. The manners of these Arabs and their country is described by the historian in tills connection. They inhabited tents in a vast desert tract, which offered neither streams nor fountains to an invading army. Their institutions, as described by him, bear a striking resemblance to those of the Kechabites in every particular, " to drink no wine, nor to build houses, nor to have vine- yard, nor field, nor seed, but to dwell in tents." (Jer. XXXV. 6 — 11.) Diodorus mentions that the violation of any of these customs was a capital crime. Their occupations were chiefly jiastoral ; some possessing camels and others sheep in much greater abundance than the other Arabs, although their number did not exceed 10,000; but they also acted as carriers of the aromatic drugs of Arabia Felix, which were discharged at their great mart at Petra, and by them transported to the ]Iediter- ranean, at Ehinocorura. The love of liberty was a passion with them; and their custom, when attacked by a more powerful enemy, was to retire to the wil- derness, whither the invaders could not follow them for want of water. They themselves had provided for such emergencies vast subterranean reservoirs of rain water, dug in the clayey soil, or excavated in the soft rock, and plastered, with very narrow mouths, — which could be easily stopped and con- cealed from sight, but which were marked by indi- cations known only to themselves,— but gradually expanding until they attained the dimensions of 100 feet square. They lived on flesh and milk, and on the spontaneous produce of the country, such as pepper and wild honey, which they drank mixed with water. There was an annual fair held in their countiy, to which the bulk of the males used to resort for purposes of traffic, leaving their flocks with their most aged men, and the women and children at Petra, naturally a very strong place, though unwalled, two days distant from the inha- bited country. Athenaeus took advantage of the absence of the Nabataeans at the fair, to attack Petra; and making a forced march of 3 days and 3 nights from the eparchy of Idumaea, a distance of 2200 stadia, he assaulted the city about midnight, slaughtered and wounded many of its inhabitants, and carried off an immense booty in spicery and silver. [Petka.] On his retreat, however, he was surprised by the Nabataei, and all his forces cut to pieces, with the exception of 50 horsemen. Shortly afterwards Antigonus sent another expedi- tion against Petra, under the command of Demetrius; but the inhabitants were prepared, and Demetrius NABATAEI. 393 was glad to withdraw his army on receiving such gifts as were most esteemed among them. (Diod. xix. 44 — 48, comp. ii. 48.) In the geographical section of his work the author places them on the Laianites Sinus, a bay of the Aelanitic gulf, and de- scribes them as possessing many villages, both on the coast and in the interior. Their country was most populous, and incredibly rich in cattle ; but their national character had degenerated when he wrote (cir. b. c. 8). They had formerly lived ho- nestly, content with the means of livelihood which their flocks supplied ; but from the time that the kings of Alexandria had rendered the gulf navi- gable for merchant vessels, they not only practised violence as wreckers, but made piratical attacks from their coasts on the merchantmen in the passage through the gulf, imitating in ferocity and lawless- ness the Tauri in Pontus. Ships of war were sent against them, and the pirates were captured and punished. (lb. iii. 42, comp. Strabo, xvi. p. 777.) The decrease of their transport trade and profits, by the new channel opened through Ecypt, was doubt- less the real cause of this degeneracy. The trade, however, was not entirely diverted ; later writers still mention Petra of the Nabataei as the great en- trepot of the Arabian commerce (Arrian, Periplus, p. 11, ap. Hudson, vol. i.), both of the Gerrhaei of the west, and of the Jlinaei of the south of that peninsula. (Strabo, xvi. p. 776.) The account given by Strabo agrees in its main features with the earlier record of Diodorus Siculus ; and he records at length the deception practised on his friend Aelius Gallus by Syllaeus, the procurator (eViTpoTros) of the Na- bataei, under the king Obodas; a false friend of the Romans, through whose territoiy he first led them on leaving Leuce Come, where they had landed. The policy of Syllaeus illustrates the remark of Strabo (xvi. p. 783), that the Nabataeans are pradent and acquisitive ; so much so, that those who wasted their property were punished, and those who in- creased it rewarded by the state. They had few slaves among them ; so they either waited on them- selves, or practised mutual servitude in families, even in the royal family. They were much ad- dicted to feasting, and their domestic manners marked considerable progress in luxury and refine- ment, from the rude simplicity of the primitive times described by the more ancient author (p. 783, seq.). He mentions that they were fire-worship- pers, and sacrificed daily to the sun on their house-tops. Their government may be styled a limited monarchy, as the king was subject to be pubhcly called to account, and to have to defend himself before the people. Their cities were un- walled, and their country fruitful in eveiything but the olive. The limits of their country are not clearly defined; Strabo places them above the Syrians, with the Sabaei, in Arabia Felix (xvi. p. 779); but this must be a corrupt reading, and is in- consistent with his other notices of them. Thus he speaks of the promontory near Seal Island — the, peninsula of Mount Sinai — as extending to Petra. of the Arabs called Nabataei (p. 776), which he describes as situated in a desert region, particulariy towards Judaea, and only three or four days' journey from Jericho (p. 779). The approach to Egypt from the east, towards Phoenice and Judaea, was difficult by way of Pelusium, but from Arabia Nabataea it was easy. All these and similar notices serve to show that, from the age of Antieonus to this period, the Nabataei had iu