THE KINGDOM OF NABATÆA

T1he Nabatæans are a famous people of ancient Arabia. Secure knowledge of their history goes back only to 312 B.C., when Antigonus failed to take their fortress of Petra. They are described by Diodorus as a pastoral and trading people, preserving their liberty in the arid country of Arabia Petræa. At the fall of the Seleucids they extend their territory over the fertile country east of the Jordan. They occupy the Hauran. Pompey reduces them to vassalage, and in 105 A.D. Trajan takes Petra and breaks up the Nabatæan nation.