Obodas I ( Nabataean Aramaic: ''ʿŌbōdaṯ''; grc, Ὀβόδας) was king of the Nabataeans from 96 BC to 85 BC. After his death, Obodas was worshiped as a deity.

Life

Obodas was the successor of Aretas II, from whom he inherited the war with the

Hasmonean kingdom The Hasmonean dynasty (; he, ''Ḥašmōnaʾīm'') was a ruling dynasty of Judea and surrounding regions during classical antiquity, from BCE to 37 BCE. Between and BCE the dynasty ruled Judea semi-autonomously in the Seleucid Empire, an ...

. He defeated them around 93 BCE on the Golan Heights. Then he ambushed Alexander Jannaeus near Gadara ( Umm Qais), just east of the

Sea of Galilee The Sea of Galilee ( he, יָם כִּנֶּרֶת, Judeo-Aramaic: יַמּא דטבריא, גִּנֵּיסַר, ar, بحيرة طبريا), also called Lake Tiberias, Kinneret or Kinnereth, is a freshwater lake in Israel. It is the lowest ...

. Using camel cavalry, he forced Jannaeus into a valley where he completed the ambush, thereby getting revenge for the Nabateans' loss of

Gaza Gaza may refer to: Places Palestine * Gaza Strip, a Palestinian territory on the eastern coast of the Mediterranean Sea ** Gaza City, a city in the Gaza Strip ** Gaza Governorate, a governorate in the Gaza Strip Lebanon * Ghazzeh, a village in ...

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 ...

and Gilead, two mountains east of the

Dead Sea The Dead Sea ( he, יַם הַמֶּלַח, ''Yam hamMelaḥ''; ar, اَلْبَحْرُ الْمَيْتُ, ''Āl-Baḥrū l-Maytū''), also known by other names, is a salt lake bordered by Jordan to the east and Israel and the West Bank ...

and the

Jordan River The Jordan River or River Jordan ( ar, نَهْر الْأُرْدُنّ, ''Nahr al-ʾUrdunn'', he, נְהַר הַיַּרְדֵּן, ''Nəhar hayYardēn''; syc, ܢܗܪܐ ܕܝܘܪܕܢܢ ''Nahrāʾ Yurdnan''), also known as ''Nahr Al-Shariea ...

, were returned. Around 86 BCE, the Seleucid ruler, Antiochus XII Dionysus, invaded Nabatea. During the

Battle of Cana The Battle of Cana was fought between Greek Seleucid under king Antiochus XII Dionysus of Syria, and the Arab Nabataean Kingdom. Cana is an unknown village; scholars place it somewhere south or southwest of the Dead Sea. After the Nabataeans ambus ...

, Antiochus was slain and his demoralized army perished in the desert. The Nabataeans, seeing how Obodas defeated both the Hasmoneans and the Greeks, started to venerate Obodas as a god. Obodas was buried in the Negev, at a place that was renamed in his honour, Avdat. He was succeeded by his brother Aretas III.

References

''This article draws heavily on the :nl:Obodas I article in the Dutch-language Wikipedia, which was accessed in the version of September 15, 2008. 1st-century BC Nabataean monarchs 2nd-century BC Arabs 1st-century BC Arabs 2nd-century BC births 80s BC deaths 1st-century BC rulers in Asia Deified people Gilead {{Asia-royal-stub

Life

See also

References