Page:The Periplus of the Erythræan Sea.djvu/112

 The district of Arabia Petraea has its name from this city. The native name, according to Josephus (Ant. Jud. IV, 7, 1) was Rekem, referring to the variegated color of the reocks in the Wady Musa. The Biblical name was Sela, “a city of Edom” (2 Kings, XIV, 7; Isaiah, XVI, 1; Judges, I, 36). Sela (Arabic Sal) means a “hollow between rocks,” and Obadiah, 3, apostrophizes Edom as “thou that dwellest in the clefts of the rocks, whose habitation is on high.” Strabo (XVI, IV, 21) says “Petra is situated on a spot which is surrounded and fortified by a smooth and level rock, which externally is abrupt and precipitous, but within there are abundant springs of water both for domestic purposes and for watering gardens. Beyond the enclosure the country is for the most part a desert, particularly toward Judaea.... Athenodorus, my friend, who had been to Petraea, used to relate with surprise, that he found many Romans and also many other strangers residing there.”

Ammianus Marcellinus (XIV, 8, 13) describes the place as “full of the most plenteous variety of merchandise, and studded with strong forts and castles, which the watchful solicitude of its ancient inhabitants has erected in suitable defiles, in order to repress the inroads of the neighboring nations.”

The topography of Petra is well known through the descriptions of Flinders Petrie and others. It was a fertile bit of valley surrounded by precipitous cliffs, with a long, narrow and winding entrance, and almost impregnable. It seems to have been, first, a place of refuge and a safe storehouse for the myrrh, frankincense, silver, etc., coming from Yemen. The Biblical references show it as an Edomite stronghold; but, being abandoned when the Edomites entered Palestine after the Babylonian captivity, it was taken by the Nabataeans; whom Josephus makes the descendants of Nebaioth, son of Ishmael, while Glaser and others see rather Nabatu, an Aramaic tribe noted in the inscriptions of TiglathpileserIII (745–727B. C.), who migrated to the valley of Edom probably in the 6th century B. C.

Here the Nabataeans were at first nomadic and predatory, inviting attack by land from Antigonus, and by sea on the Gulf of Akaba, from the Ptolemies (Agatharchides, 88; Strabo, XVI, IV, 18). Soon, however, they settled down to orderly commerce and prospered exceedingly, as the ruins of Petra testify. One may supposed that a part, at least, of their trouble with Syria and Egypt was due to their commercial aggressiveness rather than their predatory habits. They fought hard to maintain and control the caravan trade against the competition from Egyptian shipping. In their dealings with Rome they tried to carry water on both shoulders; helping Titus against