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| Province of Arabia Petraea | |||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Roman province | |||||||||||
| 106–c. 636 | |||||||||||
.svg) Boundaries of Arabia Petraea (red) within theRoman Empire,c. 125 | |||||||||||
| Capital | Petra (first) Bosra (last) | ||||||||||
| Demonym | |||||||||||
| Historical era | Ancient Rome | ||||||||||
| 106 | |||||||||||
• Creation ofPalaestina Salutaris | 390 | ||||||||||
| c. 636 | |||||||||||
| |||||||||||
Arabia Petraea (lit. 'Rocky Arabia') was aRoman province from the 2nd century to the 7th century. It was established after theRoman Empire conquered theNabataean Kingdom in 106 and existed until theMuslim conquest of the Levant in the 630s. Spanning much of theSinai Peninsula and part of theLevant, it was bordered bySyria to the north, byJudaea (laterSyria Palaestina) to the west, and byEgypt to the southwest. To the east and southeast of Arabia Petraea was non-Roman territory that the Romans knew asArabia Deserta. These two regions, together with a third region inSouth Arabia that was calledArabia Felix, accounted for theArabian Peninsula in Roman geography.
Annexed byTrajan (r. 98–117), Arabia Petraea was a key province along theLimes Arabicus, which delineated theRoman Empire's borders throughout theArabian Desert. It was also the only province in theNear East that the Romans did not gain and subsequently lose during Trajan's reign, unlikeArmenia,Assyria, andMesopotamia. The province's capital city was initiallyPetra, as it had been under the Nabataeans, butBosra later served in this capacity. Most of the province's land was a vast desert that was sparsely populated by nomadicArab tribes, though there were several urban settlements closer to theJordan River.
Though subject to eventual attack and deprivation by theParthians andPalmyrenes, Arabia Petraea witnessed nothing like the constant military incursions of Roman territory inGermania andNorth Africa, nor the entrenched cultural presence that defined the provinces of theHellenized East. However, this period of consistent and relatively stable Roman rule came to an end in the 7th century, when the province was briefly lost to theSasanian Empire during theByzantine–Sasanian War of 602–628 before being indefinitely lost to theRashidun Caliphate during theArab–Byzantine Wars.
The geographic makeup of Arabia has some variation. It includes the comparatively fertileMoab plateau, which received 200mm of annual rainfall, at the southernmost tip of which liesPetra which, along withBosra (or Busra), together constitute the political foci of the province.
Inhospitability is the norm, however, and along with the desert proper that is the Sinai, the aridNegev, which extends north of the Sinai, is practically such. Along with this are the coastal areas around theRed Sea; the badlands known asHismā that develop to the north of that coast; and the ever-present rocky terrain.
Most of Arabia's territories were sparsely populated, as urban settlements was concentrated to the north toward theJordan river and the region ofHauran. In addition toPetra, major cities includedBosra,Jerash (Gerasa),Canatha,Adraa,Maximianopolis,Philippopolis andAmman (Philadelphia). The only major sea port was Ayla (modernAqaba), at the tip of the wideGulf of Aqaba at theRed Sea.
In AD 106, whenAulus Cornelius Palma Frontonianus 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 ofPalaestina III and many churches from theByzantine period were excavated in and around Petra. In one of them, theByzantine 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.[1]
Petra served as the base forLegio III Cyrenaica, and the governor of the province would spend time in both cities, issuing edicts from both.[citation needed]
Before Roman control in 106 AD, the area had been ruled byRabbel II, last king of the Nabataeans, who had ruled since 70 AD. When he died, theThird Cyrenaica legion moved north from Egypt into Petra, while theSixth Ferrata legion, a Syrian garrison unit, moved south to occupy Bosra. 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 theTigris 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 toSyria 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 theVia Nova Traiana. This road extended down the center of the province from Bosra 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.
The road linked not only Bosra 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 Bosra to be the capital of the province, he also awarded Petra the status ofmetropolis[clarification needed], 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 occupiedMada'in Salih under Trajan in the Hijaz mountain area of northeastern Arabia, increasing the extension of the Arabia Petraea province south.[2]
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.[citation needed] After the conquest, though, Greek was adopted popularly, as well as officially, practically supplanting Nabataean and Aramaic, as evidenced by inscriptions atUmm al Quttain.[citation needed] The occurrence of Latin in the province was rare and limited to such cases as the tomb inscription ofLucius Aninius Sextius Florentinus, governor in 127, and, somewhat paradoxically, in personal names.[citation needed]
Millar makes a case for a Graeco-RomanHellenization in Arabia.[citation needed] It is an area, after all, that was not significantly hellenized during the rule ofAlexander, 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.[citation needed] 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.
TheEra of Bosra, a year numbering system specific to the province, was introduced. Its year one began on the date corresponding to 22 March 106 AD.[3]
WhenAvidius Cassius rebelled against what he believed was a deceasedMarcus Aurelius, 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.
WhenSeptimius Severus rose to 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 theLajat andJebel Drūz, rough terrain south of Damascus, and also the birthplace of M. Julius Phillipus, better known asPhilip the Arab.
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 shrewdJulia Domna.
Arabia became such a symbol of loyalty to Severus and the empire that during his war againstClodius Albinus, inGaul, 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 EmperorDiocletian'srestructuring of the empire in 284–305, Arabia province was enlarged to include parts of modern-dayIsrael. Arabia after Diocletian became a part of theDiocese of the East, which was part of thePrefecture of Oriens.
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 intoPalaestina Salutaris.
Ancient episcopal sees of the Roman province of Arabia listed in theAnnuario Pontificio astitular sees :[4]
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