Arabia Petraea or Petrea, also known as Rome's Arabian Province ( la, Provincia Arabia; ar, العربية البترائية; grc, Ἐπαρχία Πετραίας Ἀραβίας) or simply Arabia, was a frontier
province
A province is almost always an administrative division within a country or sovereign state, state. The term derives from the ancient Roman ''Roman province, provincia'', which was the major territorial and administrative unit of the Roman Empire ...
of the
Roman Empire
The Roman Empire ( la, Imperium Romanum ; grc-gre, Βασιλεία τῶν Ῥωμαίων, Basileía tôn Rhōmaíōn) was the post-Republican period of ancient Rome. As a polity, it included large territorial holdings around the Mediterr ...
beginning in the 2nd century. It consisted of the former
Nabataean Kingdom
The Nabataean Kingdom ( Nabataean Aramaic: 𐢕𐢃𐢋𐢈 ''Nabāṭū''), also named Nabatea (), was a political state of the Arab Nabataeans during classical antiquity.
The Nabataean Kingdom controlled many of the trade routes of the region, ...
in
Jordan
Jordan ( ar, الأردن; tr. ' ), officially the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan,; tr. ' is a country in Western Asia. It is situated at the crossroads of Asia, Africa, and Europe, within the Levant region, on the East Bank of the Jordan Rive ...
, southern
Levant
The Levant () is an approximate historical geographical term referring to a large area in the Eastern Mediterranean region of Western Asia. In its narrowest sense, which is in use today in archaeology and other cultural contexts, it is eq ...
, the
Sinai Peninsula
The Sinai Peninsula, or simply Sinai (now usually ) (, , cop, Ⲥⲓⲛⲁ), is a peninsula in Egypt, and the only part of the country located in Asia. It is between the Mediterranean Sea to the north and the Red Sea to the south, and is a l ...
and northwestern
Arabian Peninsula
The Arabian Peninsula, (; ar, شِبْهُ الْجَزِيرَةِ الْعَرَبِيَّة, , "Arabian Peninsula" or , , "Island of the Arabs") or Arabia, is a peninsula of Western Asia, situated northeast of Africa on the Arabian Plate ...
. Its capital was
Petra
Petra ( ar, ٱلْبَتْرَاء, Al-Batrāʾ; grc, Πέτρα, "Rock", Nabataean Aramaic, Nabataean: ), originally known to its inhabitants as Raqmu or Raqēmō, is an historic and archaeological city in southern Jordan. It is adjacent to t ...
. It was bordered on the north by
Syria
Syria ( ar, سُورِيَا or سُورِيَة, translit=Sūriyā), officially the Syrian Arab Republic ( ar, الجمهورية العربية السورية, al-Jumhūrīyah al-ʻArabīyah as-Sūrīyah), is a Western Asian country loc ...
, on the west by
Judaea
Judea or Judaea ( or ; from he, יהודה, Standard ''Yəhūda'', Tiberian ''Yehūḏā''; el, Ἰουδαία, ; la, Iūdaea) is an ancient, historic, Biblical Hebrew, contemporaneous Latin, and the modern-day name of the mountainous so ...
(merged with Syria from AD 135) and
Egypt
Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a transcontinental country spanning the northeast corner of Africa and southwest corner of Asia via a land bridge formed by the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediter ...
, and on the south and east by the rest of Arabia, known as
Arabia Deserta
Arabia Deserta (Latin meaning "Abandoned/Deserted Arabia"), also known as Arabia Magna ("Great Arabia"), signified the desert interior of the Arabian peninsula. In ancient times, this land was populated by nomadic Bedouin tribes who frequently i ...
and
Arabia Felix
Arabia Felix (literally: Fertile/Happy Arabia; also Ancient Greek: Εὐδαίμων Ἀραβία, ''Eudaemon Arabia'') was the Latin name previously used by geographers to describe South Arabia, or what is now Yemen.
Etymology
The term Arabia ...
.
The territory was annexed by Emperor
Trajan
Trajan ( ; la, Caesar Nerva Traianus; 18 September 539/11 August 117) was Roman emperor from 98 to 117. Officially declared ''optimus princeps'' ("best ruler") by the senate, Trajan is remembered as a successful soldier-emperor who presi ...
, like many other eastern frontier provinces of the Roman Empire, but held onto, unlike
Armenia
Armenia (), , group=pron officially the Republic of Armenia,, is a landlocked country in the Armenian Highlands of Western Asia.The UNbr>classification of world regions places Armenia in Western Asia; the CIA World Factbook , , and ''Ox ...
,
Mesopotamia
Mesopotamia ''Mesopotamíā''; ar, بِلَاد ٱلرَّافِدَيْن or ; syc, ܐܪܡ ܢܗܪ̈ܝܢ, or , ) is a historical region of Western Asia situated within the Tigris–Euphrates river system, in the northern part of the F ...
and
Assyria
Assyria (Neo-Assyrian cuneiform: , romanized: ''māt Aššur''; syc, ܐܬܘܪ, ʾāthor) was a major ancient Mesopotamian civilization which existed as a city-state at times controlling regional territories in the indigenous lands of the A ...
, well after Trajan's rule, its desert frontier being called the
Limes Arabicus
The ''Limes Arabicus'' was a desert frontier of the Roman Empire, running north from its start in the province of Arabia Petraea. It ran northeast from the Gulf of Aqaba for about at its greatest extent, reaching northern Syria and forming part ...
. It produced the Emperor
Philippus, who was born around 204. As a frontier province, it included a desert populated by
Arabic
Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic languages, Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C ...
tribes, and bordering the
Parthia
Parthia ( peo, 𐎱𐎼𐎰𐎺 ''Parθava''; xpr, 𐭐𐭓𐭕𐭅 ''Parθaw''; pal, 𐭯𐭫𐭮𐭥𐭡𐭥 ''Pahlaw'') is a historical region located in northeastern Greater Iran. It was conquered and subjugated by the empire of the Med ...
n hinterland.
Though subject to eventual attack and deprivation by the
Parthians and
Palmyrenes, it had nothing like the constant incursions faced in other areas on the Roman frontier, such as Germany and North Africa, or the entrenched cultural presence that defined the other more Hellenized eastern provinces.
Geography
![Roman Empire 125 political map](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/dd/Roman_Empire_125_political_map.svg)
The geographic makeup of Arabia has some variation. It includes the comparatively fertile
Moab
Moab ''Mōáb''; Assyrian: 𒈬𒀪𒁀𒀀𒀀 ''Mu'abâ'', 𒈠𒀪𒁀𒀀𒀀
''Ma'bâ'', 𒈠𒀪𒀊 ''Ma'ab''; Egyptian: 𓈗𓇋𓃀𓅱𓈉 ''Mū'ībū'', name=, group= () is the name of an ancient Levantine kingdom whose territo ...
plateau, which received 200mm of annual rainfall, at the southernmost tip of which lies
Petra
Petra ( ar, ٱلْبَتْرَاء, Al-Batrāʾ; grc, Πέτρα, "Rock", Nabataean Aramaic, Nabataean: ), originally known to its inhabitants as Raqmu or Raqēmō, is an historic and archaeological city in southern Jordan. It is adjacent to t ...
which, along with
Bostra
Bosra ( ar, بُصْرَىٰ, Buṣrā), also spelled Bostra, Busrana, Bozrah, Bozra and officially called Busra al-Sham ( ar, بُصْرَىٰ ٱلشَّام, Buṣrā al-Shām), is a town in southern Syria, administratively belonging to the Dara ...
(or Busra), together constitute the political foci of the province.
Inhospitability is the norm, though, and along with the desert proper that is the Sinai, the arid
Negev
The Negev or Negeb (; he, הַנֶּגֶב, hanNegév; ar, ٱلنَّقَب, an-Naqab) is a desert and semidesert region of southern Israel. The region's largest city and administrative capital is Beersheba (pop. ), in the north. At its southe ...
, which extends north of the Sinai, is practically such. Along with this are the coastal areas around the
Red Sea
The Red Sea ( ar, البحر الأحمر - بحر القلزم, translit=Modern: al-Baḥr al-ʾAḥmar, Medieval: Baḥr al-Qulzum; or ; Coptic: ⲫⲓⲟⲙ ⲛ̀ϩⲁϩ ''Phiom Enhah'' or ⲫⲓⲟⲙ ⲛ̀ϣⲁⲣⲓ ''Phiom ǹšari''; T ...
; the badlands known as
Hismā that develop to the north of that coast; and the ever-present rocky terrain.
Major cities
Most of Arabia was sparsely populated, and its cities can be found concentrated to the north, toward the
Jordan
Jordan ( ar, الأردن; tr. ' ), officially the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan,; tr. ' is a country in Western Asia. It is situated at the crossroads of Asia, Africa, and Europe, within the Levant region, on the East Bank of the Jordan Rive ...
. The only major port is
Aqaba
Aqaba (, also ; ar, العقبة, al-ʿAqaba, al-ʿAgaba, ) is the only coastal city in Jordan and the largest and most populous city on the Gulf of Aqaba. Situated in southernmost Jordan, Aqaba is the administrative centre of the Aqaba Govern ...
, at the tip of the wide
Gulf of Aqaba
The Gulf of Aqaba ( ar, خَلِيجُ ٱلْعَقَبَةِ, Khalīj al-ʿAqabah) or Gulf of Eilat ( he, מפרץ אילת, Mifrátz Eilát) is a large gulf at the northern tip of the Red Sea, east of the Sinai Peninsula and west of the Arabian ...
, a branch of the Red Sea.
![View of Petra](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/23/View_of_Petra.jpg)
In AD 106, when
Aulus Cornelius Palma Frontonianus
Aulus Cornelius Palma Frontonianus (died AD 118) was a soldier and Roman statesman who was twice consul: first as consul ordinarius in AD 99, with Quintus Sosius Senecio as his colleague; and again in 109, with Publius Calvisius Tullus Ruso as h ...
was governor of Syria, the part of Arabia under the rule of Petra was absorbed into the Roman Empire as part of Arabia Petraea, and Petra became its capital. Petra declined rapidly under Roman rule, in large part from the revision of sea-based trade routes. In 363,
an earthquake destroyed many buildings and crippled the vital water management system. The old city of Petra was the capital of the Eastern Roman province of
Palaestina III and many churches from the
Byzantine period
The Byzantine Empire, also referred to as the Eastern Roman Empire or Byzantium, was the continuation of the Roman Empire primarily in its eastern provinces during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, when its capital city was Constantinopl ...
were excavated in and around Petra. In one of them, the
Byzantine Church,
140 papyri were discovered, which contained mainly contracts dated from 530s to 590s, establishing that the city was still flourishing in the 6th century.
Petra served as the base for
Legio III Cyrenaica, and the governor of the province would spend time in both cities, issuing edicts from both.
History
Roman conquest
Before Roman control in 106 AD, the area had been ruled by
Rabbel II, last king of the Nabataeans, who had ruled since 70 AD. When he died the
Third Cyrenaica legion moved north from Egypt into Petra, while the
Sixth Ferrata legion, a Syrian garrison unit, moved south to occupy Bostra. The conquest of Nabataea can be best described as casual, an act by Trajan to consolidate control of the area before acting on his designs for territory across the
Tigris
The Tigris () is the easternmost of the two great rivers that define Mesopotamia, the other being the Euphrates. The river flows south from the mountains of the Armenian Highlands through the Syrian and Arabian Deserts, and empties into the ...
and eventually into Mesopotamia proper.
There is no evidence of any pretext for the annexation: Rabbel II had an heir by the name of Obodas and though there was little fighting (attested to by the fact that Trajan did not adopt the appellation "Arabicus"), there does seem to have been enough of a defeat to humiliate the Nabataeans. The two cohorts that eventually found themselves in Arabia had sailed from Egypt to
Syria
Syria ( ar, سُورِيَا or سُورِيَة, translit=Sūriyā), officially the Syrian Arab Republic ( ar, الجمهورية العربية السورية, al-Jumhūrīyah al-ʻArabīyah as-Sūrīyah), is a Western Asian country loc ...
in preparation for the action. Apart from some units of the Nabataean royal guard, this seems not to have been strongly resisted, as suggested by the fact that some Nabataean troops served as auxiliary Roman troops shortly after the conquest.
The conquest of Arabia was not officially celebrated until completion of the
Via Nova Traiana
The Via Traiana Nova or Via Nova Traiana ( for, , Latin, Trajan's New Road), previously known as the Via Regia or King's Highway, was an ancient Roman road built by Emperor Trajan in the province of Arabia Petraea, from Aqaba on the Red Sea to ...
. This road extended down the center of the province from Bostra to Aqaba. It was not until the project was finished that coins, featuring Trajan's bust on the obverse and a camel on the reverse, appeared commemorating the acquisition of Arabia. These coins were minted until 115, at which time the Roman imperial focus was turning farther eastward.
![Roman Empire Trajan 117AD](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/00/Roman_Empire_Trajan_117AD.png)
The road linked not only Bostra and Aqaba, which other than being a port does not seem to have held much significance to the imperial government, but also Petra, which sat at the center of the province, between the road's two termini. Though Trajan declared Bostra to be the capital of the province, he also awarded Petra the status of
metropolis
A metropolis () is a large city or conurbation which is a significant economic, political, and cultural center for a country or region, and an important hub for regional or international connections, commerce, and communications.
A big c ...
, as a sign that he agreed about its importance with his successor, Hadrian, who considered it to be dignified and historic.
In the 1960s and 1970s, evidence was discovered that Roman legions occupied
Mada'in Salih under Trajan in the Hijaz mountain area of northeastern Arabia, increasing the extension of the Arabia Petraea province south.
Romanization
With Roman conquest came the imposition of Latin and Greek in official discourse. This was standard for a province in Eastern Rome, but Arabia had far less of the history of Hellenization and Romanization than its neighbors, and the Greek language was little used before its introduction by the Romans. After the conquest, though, Greek was adopted popularly, as well as officially, practically supplanting Nabataean and Aramaic, as evidenced by inscriptions at
Umm al Quttain. The occurrence of Latin in the province was rare and limited to such cases as the tomb inscription of
Lucius Aninius Sextius Florentinus
Lucius Aninius Sextius Florentinus (died between 127 and 130) was a Roman Empire, Roman Roman senate, senator, who held a number of imperial appointments during the reigns of Trajan and Hadrian. He died while governing Roman Arabia; his unnamed son ...
, governor in 127, and, somewhat paradoxically, in personal names.
Millar makes a case for a Graeco-Roman
Hellenization
Hellenization (other British spelling Hellenisation) or Hellenism is the adoption of Greek culture, religion, language and identity by non-Greeks. In the ancient period, colonization often led to the Hellenization of indigenous peoples; in the ...
in Arabia. It is an area, after all, that was not significantly hellenized during the rule of
Alexander
Alexander is a male given name. The most prominent bearer of the name is Alexander the Great, the king of the Ancient Greek kingdom of Macedonia who created one of the largest empires in ancient history.
Variants listed here are Aleksandar, Al ...
, and the locals originally spoke their native language, not Greek. So with the introduction of Roman rule, along with many aspects of classic Roman socialization, such as public works and glorification of the military, came an introduction of some Greek cultural and social values. Arabia acclimated to the new culture so fully that it seems the original linguistic groups faded away. There were scattered Nabataean inscriptions during the period of imperial Roman rule.
The
Era of Bostra, a year numbering system specific to the province, was introduced. Its year one began on the date corresponding to 22 March 106 AD.
Arabia during late Roman Empire
When
Avidius Cassius
Gaius Avidius Cassius ( 130 – July 175 AD) was a Syrian Roman general and usurper. He was born in Cyrrhus, and was the son of Gaius Avidius Heliodorus, who served as ''praefectus'' or governor of Roman Egypt, and Julia Cassia Alexandra, who w ...
rebelled against what he believed was a deceased
Marcus Aurelius
Marcus Aurelius Antoninus (Latin: áːɾkus̠ auɾέːli.us̠ antɔ́ːni.us̠ English: ; 26 April 121 – 17 March 180) was Roman emperor from 161 to 180 AD and a Stoic philosopher. He was the last of the rulers known as the Five Good ...
, he received no support from Arabia province, overlooked by some historians likely due to the fact that Arabia did not have the wealth or political might of Syria. Arabia responded similarly when the governor of Syria,
Pescennius Niger, proclaimed himself emperor in 193.
When
Septimius Severus
Lucius Septimius Severus (; 11 April 145 – 4 February 211) was Roman emperor from 193 to 211. He was born in Leptis Magna (present-day Al-Khums, Libya) in the Roman province of Africa (Roman province), Africa. As a young man he advanced thro ...
came into power and stripped the Syrian city of Antioch of its status as Metropolis for its part in the rebellion and meted out punishment to any others who were unlucky enough to choose the wrong side, the Third Cyrenaica received the honorific "Severiana". In addition, the governor of Arabia,
Publius Aelius Severianus Maximus, was allowed to continue in his post in reward for his loyalty. Syria was later split into two and Arabia was expanded to include the
Lajat
The Lajat (/ ALA-LC: ''al-Lajāʾ''), also spelled ''Lejat'', ''Lajah'', ''el-Leja'' or ''Laja'', is the largest lava field in southern Syria, spanning some 900 square kilometers. Located about southeast of Damascus, the Lajat borders the Hau ...
and
Jebel Drūz, rough terrain south of Damascus, and also the birthplace of M. Julius Phillipus, better known as
Philip the Arab
Philip the Arab ( la, Marcus Julius Philippus "Arabs"; 204 – September 249) was Roman emperor from 244 to 249. He was born in Aurantis, Arabia, in a city situated in modern-day Syria. After the death of Gordian III in February 244, Philip, ...
.
Severus had enlarged a province that was already huge. He then proceeded to enlarge the empire through the conquest of Mesopotamia. The transfer of the Leja’ and Jebel Drūz seemed to have been part of a shrewd series of political acts on the emperor's part to consolidate control of the area before this conquest. Arabia became the ideological power base for Septemius Severus in the Roman Near East. The obvious need to mitigate and tame the power of the province of Syria, which had shown itself over and over to be a hotbed of rebellion, was then accomplished in three parts: The reorganization of Syria into two political units, the reduction of its territory in favor of Arabia, and the marriage of the emperor to the shrewd
Julia Domna
Julia Domna (; – 217 AD) was Roman empress from 193 to 211 as the wife of Emperor Septimius Severus. She was the first empress of the Severan dynasty. Domna was born in Emesa (present-day Homs) in Roman Syria to an Arab family of priests ...
.
Arabia became such a symbol of loyalty to Severus and the empire that during his war against
Clodius Albinus
Decimus Clodius Albinus ( 150 – 19 February 197) was a Roman imperial pretender between 193 and 197. He was proclaimed emperor by the legions in Britain and Hispania (the Iberian Peninsula, comprising modern Spain and Portugal) after the murder ...
, in
Gaul
Gaul ( la, Gallia) was a region of Western Europe first described by the Romans. It was inhabited by Celtic and Aquitani tribes, encompassing present-day France, Belgium, Luxembourg, most of Switzerland, parts of Northern Italy (only during ...
, Syrian opponents propagated a rumour that the Third Cyrenaica had defected. That it would matter to an issue in Gallia that a single legion in a backwater province on the other side of the empire would rebel indicates the political sway that Arabia had amassed. Not a land of significant population, or resources or even strategic position, it had become a bedrock of Roman culture. That it was an Eastern Roman culture did not seem to dilute this importance in the west. It is precisely because Arabia had so little that it was able to define itself as Roman and that spurred its loyalty to Imperial Rome.
With Emperor
Diocletian
Diocletian (; la, Gaius Aurelius Valerius Diocletianus, grc, Διοκλητιανός, Diokletianós; c. 242/245 – 311/312), nicknamed ''Iovius'', was Roman emperor from 284 until his abdication in 305. He was born Gaius Valerius Diocles ...
's
restructuring of the empire in 284–305, Arabia province was enlarged to include parts of modern-day
Israel
Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...
. Arabia after Diocletian became a part of the
Diocese of the East
The Diocese of the East ( la, Dioecesis Orientis; el, ) was a diocese of the later Roman Empire, incorporating the provinces of the western Middle East, between the Mediterranean Sea and Mesopotamia. During late Antiquity, it was one of the majo ...
, which was part of the
Prefecture of Oriens.
Byzantine rule
As part of the Diocese of the East, Arabia became a frontline in the Byzantine-Sassanid Wars. In the 5th or 6th century it was transformed into
Palaestina Salutaris
Palaestina Salutaris or Palaestina Tertia was a Byzantine (Eastern Roman) province, which covered the area of the Negev, Sinai (except the north western coast) and south-west of Transjordan, south of the Dead Sea. The province, a part of the Dio ...
.
Episcopal sees
Ancient episcopal sees of the Roman province of Arabia listed in the ''
Annuario Pontificio
The ''Annuario Pontificio'' (Italian for ''Pontifical Yearbook'') is the annual directory of the Holy See of the Catholic Church. It lists the popes in chronological order and all officials of the Holy See's departments. It also provides names ...
'' as
titular see
A titular see in various churches is an episcopal see of a former diocese that no longer functions, sometimes called a "dead diocese". The ordinary or hierarch of such a see may be styled a "titular metropolitan" (highest rank), "titular archbis ...
s :
[''Annuario Pontificio 2013'' (Libreria Editrice Vaticana 2013 ), "Sedi titolari", pp. 819-1013]
See also
*
List of Roman governors of Arabia Petraea
*
Arabian Peninsula in the Roman era
*
Arabs
The Arabs (singular: Arab; singular ar, عَرَبِيٌّ, DIN 31635: , , plural ar, عَرَب, DIN 31635, DIN 31635: , Arabic pronunciation: ), also known as the Arab people, are an ethnic group mainly inhabiting the Arab world in Wester ...
*
Arabian Peninsula
The Arabian Peninsula, (; ar, شِبْهُ الْجَزِيرَةِ الْعَرَبِيَّة, , "Arabian Peninsula" or , , "Island of the Arabs") or Arabia, is a peninsula of Western Asia, situated northeast of Africa on the Arabian Plate ...
*
Pre-Islamic Arabia
Pre-Islamic Arabia ( ar, شبه الجزيرة العربية قبل الإسلام) refers to the Arabian Peninsula before the emergence of Islam in 610 CE.
Some of the settled communities developed into distinctive civilizations. Informatio ...
*
Petra
Petra ( ar, ٱلْبَتْرَاء, Al-Batrāʾ; grc, Πέτρα, "Rock", Nabataean Aramaic, Nabataean: ), originally known to its inhabitants as Raqmu or Raqēmō, is an historic and archaeological city in southern Jordan. It is adjacent to t ...
Citations
General and cited references
* G. W. Bowersock, ''Roman Arabia'', (Harvard University Press, 1983)
* Fergus Millar, ''Roman Near East'', (Harvard University Press, 1993)
External links
On the Via Nova Traiana Virtual Karak Resources Project
On the Limes Arabicus Virtual Karak Resources Project
{{Authority control
100s establishments in the Roman Empire
100s establishments
106 establishments
630s disestablishments in the Byzantine Empire
630s disestablishments
Ancient Levant
Arabia
Historical regions
History of Palestine (region)
Jordan in the Roman era
Late Roman Syria
Nabataea
Sinai Peninsula
States and territories disestablished in the 7th century