The Nabataeans, a Semitic people from northern Arabia, moved into the Negev and southern portions of present-day Jordan in the sixth century BC. They commanded the lucrative trade route from Damascus to Arabia. In addition to their capital at Petra, the Nabataeans developed trading and caravan sites at Avdat and Mamshit, in the Negev.
In 312 BC the Macedonian Antigonus-I (c.81; r.306-301 BC) vainly tried to conquer Petra. Nabataean kings also remained independent of the Seleucids. In 168 BC Aretas-I held the Moabites; in 85 BC Aretas III (r.85-61 BC) occupied Damascus but withdrew before Tigranes II (85; r.95-55 BC) in 70 BC, in 66 BC he besieged Jerusalem, until Scaurus compelled him to leave Judea. The Nabataeans henceforth became allies and vassals of Rome. Cornelius Palma (cos. AD 99), governor of Syria, incorporated Nabataea, apparently without a struggle, into the Roman Province of Arabia in AD 106.
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