{{Short description|Roman province (106–630s)}} {{For|the Czech author of the 1907 work "Arabia Petraea" in German|Alois Musil}} {{Infobox Former Subdivision | native_name = {{lang|la|{{noitalics|{{aut|Provincia Arabia Petraea}}}}}} {{nobold|([[Latin]])}}<br />{{lang|grc|{{Script/Greek|Ἐπαρχία Πετραίας Ἀραβίας}}}} {{nobold|([[Koine Greek|Greek]])}}<br />{{lang|ar|{{Script/Arabic|مقاطعة البتراء العربية}}|rtl=yes}} {{nobold|([[Arabic]])}} | common_name = Arabia | image_map = Roman Empire - Arabia Petraea (125 AD).svg | image_map_caption = Boundaries of Arabia Petraea (red) within the [[Roman Empire]], {{circa|125}} | era = [[Ancient Rome]] | subdivision = Province | year_start = 106 | year_end = {{circa|634}} | p1 = Nabataean Kingdom | p2 = Decapolis | s1 = Bilad al-Sham | capital = [[Petra]] (first)<br />[[Bosra#History|Bosra]] (last) | event_start = [[History of the Romans in Arabia|Roman conquest of Nabataea]] | event1 = Creation of [[Palaestina Salutaris]] | date_event1 = 390 | event_end = [[Muslim conquest of the Levant]] | demonym = {{hlist|[[History of the Arabs|Arab]]|[[Tribes of Arabia|Arabian]]}} | today = <!-- No more than four, so do not fill --> | conventional_long_name = Province of Arabia Petraea | status_text = [[Roman province]] }}
'''Arabia Petraea''' ({{Literal translation|Rocky Arabia}}) was a [[Roman province]] from the 2nd century to the 7th century that was situated mostly in nowadays Kingdom of [[Jordan]]. The province was established by the [[Roman Empire]] in the former territory of the [[Nabataean Kingdom]] conquered in 106 AD during the reign of [[Trajan]] ({{Reign|98|117}}) and it existed until it was superseded into [[Palaestina Salutaris]] in the fourth century. The territory was briefly lost from the Romans to the [[Sasanian Empire]] during the [[Byzantine–Sasanian War of 602–628]] before being indefinitely lost to the [[Rashidun Caliphate]] during the [[Arab–Byzantine Wars]].
The territory of Arabia Petraea spanned parts of the modern-day [[Levant]], [[Jordan]], [[Palestine]], the [[Sinai Peninsula]], and northern [[Arabian Peninsula]]. It bordered [[Roman Syria|Syria]] to the north, [[Judaea (Roman province)|Judaea]] (later [[Syria Palaestina]]) to the west, [[Roman Egypt|Egypt]] to the southwest, and [[Arabia Deserta]] (the desert interior of the Arabian Peninsula) to the east and southeast. The Romans also categorized a third Arabia, [[Arabia Felix]], in [[South Arabia]].
Arabia Petraea was a key province along the [[Limes Arabicus]], which delineated the [[Borders of the Roman Empire|Roman Empire's borders]] throughout the [[Arabian Desert]]. It was also the only province in the [[Near East]] that the Romans did not gain and subsequently lose during Trajan's reign, unlike [[Roman Armenia|Armenia]], [[Assyria (Roman province)|Assyria]], and [[Mesopotamia (Roman province)|Mesopotamia]]. The province's capital city was initially [[Petra]], as it had been under the Nabataeans, but [[Bosra]] later served in this capacity. Most of the province's land was a vast desert that was sparsely populated by nomadic [[Tribes of Arabia|Arab tribes]], though there were several urban settlements closer to the [[Jordan River]].
== Name == {{See also|Palaestina Salutaris}} After the conquest of the [[Nabataean Kingdom]] in 106 AD, the Romans named the newly acquired territory '''''Arabia Petraea'''''. This name was retained until the second half of the fourth century, when the territory of the province came under the new name '''''Palaestinia Tertia Salutaris'''''.{{Sfn|Pogorelsky|2025|p=14–15}}
This change was tied to larger, administrative re-organizations that had been underway since the reign of [[Diocletian]] (r. 284–305). During Diocletian's reign, most of Arabia's territory was transferred to the province of ''Palaestinia'', with the remainder of Arabia being restricted to the [[Hauran]] and [[Moab]]. As ''Palaestina'' became too large, during the second half of the fourth century (with the exact time a matter of debate), ''Palaestina'' was divided into three provinces: ''[[Palaestina Prima]]'' (First Palestine, capital: [[Caesarea Maritima]], ''[[Palaestina Secunda]]'' (Second Palestine, capital: [[Scythopolis]], and ''[[Palaestina Salutaris|Palaestina Tertia Salutaris]]'' (Third Palestine, capital: [[Petra]]). ''Palaestina Tertia'' incorporated the regions belonging to the remainder of ''Arabia''.{{Sfn|Pogorelsky|2025|p=14–15}}
== Geography == [[File:Roman Empire 125 political map.svg|thumb|300px|The Roman Empire in the time of [[Hadrian]] (ruled AD 117–138), showing, in western Asia, the [[imperial province]] of Arabia Petraea (SW Syria/Jordan/NW Saudi Arabia/Sinai). A single legion was deployed there in 125 AD.]]Arabia Petraea occupied a zone between the settled Levant and the Arabian interior, across much of modern [[Jordan]], southern [[Syria]], the [[Negev]], and northwest Arabia. Its landscape combined the volcanic and agricultural uplands of the [[Hauran]] around [[Bosra|Bostra]], the [[Transjordan (region)|Transjordan]] plateau and desert steppe, the highlands of [[Moab]] and [[Edom]], and the arid southern corridors that lead to the [[Gulf of Aqaba]]. The city [[Petra]], the capital of Arabia Petraea, itself lay in a valley enclosed by steep mountain ranges, leading to its dependence on trade networks and infrastructure.
== Administration == Most of Arabia's territories were sparsely populated, as urban settlements was concentrated to the north toward the [[Jordan River|Jordan river]] and the region of [[Hauran]]. In addition to [[Petra]], major cities included [[Bosra]], [[Jerash]] (Gerasa), [[Qanawat|Canatha]], [[Daraa|Adraa]], [[Shaqqa|Maximianopolis]], [[Shahba|Philippopolis]] and [[Amman]] (Philadelphia). The only major sea port was Ayla (modern [[Aqaba]]), at the tip of the wide [[Gulf of Aqaba]] at the [[Red Sea]].
[[File:View of Petra.jpg|thumb|left|[[Petra]], one of the major cities of Arabian Petra, now designated as a [[World Heritage Site]] by [[UNESCO]]]]
In 106 AD, when [[Aulus 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, [[Galilee earthquake of 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 Salutaris|Palaestina III]] and many churches from the [[Byzantine Empire|Byzantine period]] were excavated in and around Petra. In one of them, the [[Byzantine Church (Petra)|Byzantine Church]], [[Petra papyri|140 papyri]] were discovered, which contained mainly contracts dated from 530s to 590s, establishing that the city was still flourishing in the 6th century.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Dio Cassius, LXVII. 14, 5}}</ref>
Petra served as one of the bases for [[Legio III Cyrenaica]], and the governor of the province would spend time in both cities, issuing edicts from both.{{Sfn|Fiema|2025|p=29}}
=== Urbanism and architecture === Across the cities of Arabia Petraea, Roman urban elements were introduced, but their execution varied and was deeply shaped by local traditions. Cities such as Gerasa and Philadelphia adopted Roman features, colonnaded avenues ([[cardo]] and [[decumanus]]), public monuments, and loosely rectilinear plans, yet their construction techniques and architectural decoration remained strongly influenced by regional Near Eastern and Nabataean practice.<ref name=":0">{{Cite journal |last=Segal |first=Arthur |date=1981 |title=Roman Cities in the Province of Arabia |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/989724 |journal=Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians |volume=40 |issue=2 |pages=108–121 |doi=10.2307/989724 |issn=0037-9808}}</ref> Bostra, the provincial capital, exhibited a different character: its buildings followed Roman civic models but were executed in the local basalt, giving the city a severe and non-classical appearance. Philippopolis stands apart, having been founded according to an idealized Roman colonial plan, with strict orthogonal streets and standardized public buildings laid out from its inception.<ref name=":0" /> Generally, while Roman models became organizing elements, their construction often relied on local craftsmen who modified classical design, proportions, and decoration. The result was a mixture of Roman, Hellenistic, and indigenous Semitic forms rather than a simple cultural replacement.<ref name=":0" />
== History == === Roman annexation === Before Roman control in 106 AD, the area had been ruled by the [[Nabataean Kingdom]]. The final ruler of the kingdom before its annexation was [[Rabbel II]], whose reign began in 70 AD until his death in early 105. After Rabbel died, the Nabatean Kingdom entered into a succession crisis, but the Roman emperor at the time, Trajan, refused to recognize any of the claimants of the throne. Instead, Trajan sent his army to annex the Nabataean Kingdom. The invasion consisted of the movement of the [[Legio III Cyrenaica|Third Cyrenaica legion]] (from Egypt) advancing onto Bostra from the south and the movement of the [[Legio VI Ferrata|Sixth Ferrata legion]] (from Syria) advancing on Petra from the north. The territory was conquered, and it was converted into the new Roman province of Arabia Petraea. There may have been little resistance to this process, as the former royal troops of Nabataea were joined into the Roman forces.{{Sfn|Strobel|2025|p=325}}
Bosra was declared to be the capital of the province, and Petra was given the status of ''[[metropolis]] Arabica'', "Arabian metropolis" or "Arabian mother city",<ref>{{Cite book |last=Fratantuono |first=Lee |title=Mesopotamia and Arabia |date=2021 |publisher=Pen & Sword Books Limited |isbn= |series= |location= |pages=4}}</ref> as a sign of its importance.
After Trajan's annexation of the kingdom, during the phase of consolidation of the new territory, Trajan constructed a road called the [[Via Nova Traiana]]. It ran approximately 430 km from the Syrian boundary to the Red Sea and helped link the new province's major centers and corridors, especially Bostra, Philadelphia, al-Rabbah, Petra, and the route toward Aila/Aqaba, further enabling Roman administration, military movement, taxation, and official travel.{{Sfn|MacDonald|2025|p=225–229}}
[[File:Roman Empire Trajan 117AD.png|thumb|upright=1.35|{{legend|#b23938|Trajan control of Arabia until Hegra (actual [[Hegra (Mada'in Salih)|Mada'in Salih]])}}]]
In the 1960s and 1970s, evidence was discovered that Roman legions occupied [[Hegra (Mada'in Salih)|Mada'in Salih]] under Trajan in the Hijaz mountain area of northwestern Arabia, increasing the extension of the Arabia Petraea province south.<ref>{{cite magazine | last1=Kesting | first1=Piney | title=Well of Good Fortune | url=http://archive.aramcoworld.com/issue/200103/well.of.good.fortune.htm | date=2001 | magazine=[[Saudi Aramco World]] | access-date=March 31, 2016}}</ref>
=== Late Roman period === [[Image:Bosra-Ruins.jpg|thumb|left|[[Bostra|Bosra]], an important centre of trade]]
Under [[Septimius Severus]], Arabia Petraea was enlarged northward at the expense of the territory belonging to the province Syria, probably incorporating the [[Lajat]] and [[Jabal al-Druze|Jebel Druze]] (south of [[Damascus]]). This change formed part of a wider reorganization of the eastern provinces under Severus after a series of civil wars which saw Syria divided and neighboring provinces adjusted. The expansion also brought into Arabia the region associated with the later emperor [[Philip the Arab]], who was born at [[Shahba]] in the [[Hauran]]. During the [[Diocletian Reforms]] around 300, the province was reduced again when the Negev, Sinai, and southern Transjordan were transferred to Palaestina.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Grasso |first=Valentina A. |title=Pre-islamic Arabia: societies, politics, cults and identities during late antiquity |date=2023 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-1-009-25296-6 |location=Cambridge |pages=41}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Naveh |first=Joseph |date=1986 |title=A Medical Document or a Writing Exercise? The So-called 4Q Therapeia |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/27926009 |journal=Israel Exploration Journal |volume=36 |issue=1/2 |pages=52–55 |issn=0021-2059}}</ref>
=== Byzantine period === Around 357-358, Syria Palaestina was split in two; southern Palaestina, which included the recently added territories and later became known as [[Palaestina Salutaris]], was separated from the remaining northern territory, which received the name [[Palaestina Prima]].<ref name= YDan>{{Cite journal |last=Dan |first=Yaron |year=1982 |title=Palaestina Salutaris (Tertia) and Its Capital |journal=[[Israel Exploration Journal]] |volume=32 |issue=2/3 |pages=134–135 |jstor=27925836 |quote=The division of Palestine into two provinces, Palestina Prima and Southern Palestine, later to be known as Palaestina Salutaris, took place in 357-358 [...] In 409 we hear for the first time of the three provinces of Palestine: Palaestina Prima, Secunda and Tertia (the former Salutaris).}}</ref>
== Greco-Roman influence == After the Roman annexation of the Nabataean kingdom in 106 CE, the new province of Arabia Petraea experienced a rapid, albeit uneven, process of Hellenization and provincial integration into the empire. While little is known about how the conquest was carried out, it was immediately followed by a decline of a "Nabataean" public ethnic identity in documents.{{Sfn|Millar|2001|p=414}} A new provincial dating system was created, the [[Bostran era]], whose first year began in 106 AD, the date of the creation of the new province, showing that local communities quickly adopted the chronology of [[Roman Arabia]] while still sometimes writing in Nabataean.{{Sfn|Millar|2001|p=414–415}} Greek and Greek-style civic institutions became prominent within a few years of annexation.{{Sfn|Millar|2001|p=415}}
The clearest evidence for the transition into a Greco-Roman cultural milieu comes from the [[Babatha]] [[Babatha|archive]], which shows that Nabataean and Aramaic documentary practices went from being written in Nabataean and Aramaic toward Greek legal and administrative forms. For example, datable documents from 94 and 99 are Nabataean, but a deed of deposit from 110 is in Greek and is dated according to the fifth Roman year of the province, citing a penalty payable to Caesar instead of a Nabataean king.{{Sfn|Millar|2001|p=415}} Aramaic documents continued to be used into the early 120s, especially within a Jewish family context, but even these recognized Roman and provincial institutions through their dating formulae.{{Sfn|Millar|2001|p=415–416}} From 124 to 132, the archive is largely Greek, with some Aramaic personal attestations and witness signatures, showing that Greek had become the normal language for many legal transactions, including some private ones.{{Sfn|Millar|2001|p=416–417}}
This linguistic shift to Greek was accompanied by a reclassification of major communities as Greek-style cities. Petra appears in the Babatha archive as a metropolis with a council and the city had already received the title "metropolis" by 114 AD.{{Sfn|Millar|2001|p=417}} The existence of a council implies the broader apparatus of Greek civic government, including annual magistrates, even though Nabataean and Aramaic signatures continued to appear alongside Greek proceedings.{{Sfn|Millar|2001|p=417–418}} Other towns also acquired or displayed Greek civic status after the creation of the province: Bostra became "Nea Traiane Bostra" during the time of Trajan, [[Rabbathmoba]] was treated as a ''polis'', and places such as [[Canatha]], [[Adraa]], [[Madaba]], and later [[Charachmoba]] appear within the same landscape.{{Sfn|Millar|2001|p=418–420}}
Hellenization in Arabia therefore was a matter of language, but also of public culture, civic status, coinage, festivals, and religious representation. Cities began to issue Greek coins in the second and third centuries AD, and Petra and Bostra came to be classified as Roman ''coloniae'', furthering their incorporation into the civic structures of the Romans.{{Sfn|Millar|2001|p=420}} Despite the growing Greco-Roman influence, local traditions could also persist in some contexts, such as coins in several cities (Adraa, Bostra, Charachmoba, and Madaba) that presented aniconic cult objects. Even these also shared in the standard anthropomorphic images of Graeco-Roman deities.{{Sfn|Millar|2001|p=423–424}} Greek games and festivals also became part of urban public life, especially at [[Bostra]], [[Gerasa]], [[Scythopolis]], and [[Philadelphia]], though the evidence for such institutions is weaker in Petra and the southern former Nabataean zone.{{Sfn|Millar|2001|p=425}}
Fergus Millar treats the term "Hellenization" with caution, arguing that "Graeco-Roman" is more accurate because Greek public culture developed together with Roman administration, Roman law, Latin names, and the presence of local army veterans.{{Sfn|Millar|2001|p=425–426}} The deepest effects of this process may have occurred not in Petra itself, which seems to have remained a relatively modest provincial town after the monarchy, but in the villages of the Hauran and neighboring regions, where Greek inscriptions, public buildings, temples, local offices, and communal building projects became widespread.{{Sfn|Millar|2001|p=421–427}} By the early fourth century, public Semitic-language inscriptions had largely disappeared in the northern and central settled zones, while Greek had become the dominant language of public expression in village communities.{{Sfn|Millar|2001|p=422–423, 427}} Nabataean did not disappear entirely and its survival was regionally uneven, with appearances continuing in peripheral areas beyond the center of Roman influence like the [[Sinai Peninsula|Sinai]] [[Sinai Peninsula|Peninsula]] and the [[Hejaz]] in the second to fourth centuries.{{Sfn|Millar|2001|p=427–428}}
== List of episcopal sees == Ancient episcopal sees of the Roman province of Arabia listed in the ''[[Annuario Pontificio]]'' as [[titular see]]s:<ref>''Annuario Pontificio 2013'' (Libreria Editrice Vaticana 2013 {{ISBN|978-88-209-9070-1}}), "Sedi titolari", pp. 819-1013</ref> {{columns-list|colwidth=30em| * [[Adraa]] (Daraa) * [[Bacatha in Arabia]] (ruins of Khirbet-El-Bascha?) * [[Bosana (Syria)]] (Busan) * '''[[Bostra]], the Metropolitan Archbishopric''' * [[Canatha]] * [[Constantia in Arabia]] (Buraq) * [[Chrysopolis in Arabia]] * [[Dionysias]] * Erra (Es-Sanamein?, Aere?, Ire?) * [[Esbus]] (Hesbân) * Eutyme * [[Gerasa]] (now Jerash) * [[Maximianopolis in Arabia]] * [[Medaba]] (now Madaba) * [[Neapolis in Arabia]] * Neila (ruins of Khirbet-En-Nila) * [[Nawa, Syria|Neve]] * [[Parembolae in Arabia]] * [[Phaena]] (Al-Masmiyah) * [[Philippopolis in Arabia]] (Shahba) * [[Zorava]] (Ezra') }}
== See also == * [[Pre-Islamic Arabia]] ** [[History of the Romans in Arabia]] *** [[List of Roman governors of Arabia Petraea]] * [[Religion in pre-Islamic Arabia]]
== Citations == {{Reflist}}
== Sources == * {{cite book |last=Bowersock |first=Glen Warren |author-link=Glen Bowersock |title=Roman Arabia |date=1996 |publisher=Harvard University Press |location=Cambridge, Mass. |isbn=9780674777552 |edition=4. print}} * {{Cite book |last=Fiema |first=Zbigniew |title=Reframing the "Desert Frontier": Studies in the Ancient Near East and Northern Arabia in Honour of David Kennedy |date=2025 |publisher=Sydney University Press |editor-last=Repper |editor-first=Rebecca |pages=27–62 |chapter=Freedmen in Roman Hegra |editor-last2=Bewley |editor-first2=Robert |editor-last3=Bishop |editor-first3=Mike |chapter-url=https://www.google.com/books/edition/Reframing_the_Desert_Frontier/40hKEQAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&pg=PA27&printsec=frontcover}} * {{Cite book |last=MacDonald |first=Burton |title=Reframing the "Desert Frontier": Studies in the Ancient Near East and Northern Arabia in Honour of David Kennedy |date=2025 |publisher=Sydney University Press |editor-last=Repper |editor-first=Rebecca |pages=213–238 |chapter=From survey to further research: Several sites of the Roman (Nabataean) period in southern Jordan |editor-last2=Bewley |editor-first2=Robert |editor-last3=Bishop |editor-first3=Mike |chapter-url=https://www.google.com/books/edition/Reframing_the_Desert_Frontier/40hKEQAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&pg=PA27&printsec=frontcover}} * {{cite book |last=Millar |first=Fergus |author-link=Fergus Millar |title=The Roman near east, 31 BC - AD 337: based on Carl Newell Jackson lectures |date=2001 |publisher=Harvard University Press |location=Cambridge, Mass. |isbn=978-0674778856 |edition=4. print}} * {{Cite book |last=Pogorelsky |first=Ofer |title=The Negev Highland Settlements and Their Agricultural Hinterland in the Byzantine Period |date=2025 |publisher=TS Edizioni |editor-last=Sion |editor-first=Ofer |pages=11–29 |chapter=The Negev: An Historical Overview |editor-last2=Tepper |editor-first2=Yotam |editor-last3=Shemesh |editor-first3=Noy |editor-last4=Wiegmann |editor-first4=Alexander}} * {{Cite book |last=Strobel |first=Karl |title=The Oxford Handbook of the Hellenistic and Roman Near East |date=2025 |publisher=Oxford University Press |editor-last=Raja |editor-first=Rubina |pages=325–338 |chapter=Divus Traianus Parthicus and the Near East}}
== Further reading ==
* {{Cite book |last=Ball |first=Warwick |author-link=Warwick Ball |title=Rome in the East: The Transformation of an Empire |publisher=Routledge |year=2000 |isbn=978-0415113762 |pages=30–33, 101–105}} * {{Cite journal |last=Fiema |first=Zbigniew Tomasz |date=1987 |title=The Annexation of Arabia–A General Perspective |journal=Ancient World |volume=XV |issue=1-2 |pages=25-35 |issn=0160-9645}} * {{Cite journal |last=Segal |first=Arthur |date=1981 |title=Roman Cities in the Province of Arabia |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/989724 |journal=Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians |volume=40 |issue=2 |pages=108–121 |doi=10.2307/989724}}
== External links == * [https://archive.today/20140826023220/http://www.vkrp.org/studies/historical/roman-roads/ On the Via Nova Traiana], Virtual Karak Resources Project * [https://archive.today/20140319183617/http://www.vkrp.org/studies/historical/roman-forts/ On the Limes Arabicus], Virtual Karak Resources Project
{{Nabataean Arabs topics}}{{Roman provinces AD 117}}{{Pre-Islamic Arabia|state=collapsed}}{{Late Roman Provinces}} {{Authority control}}
[[Category:Arabia Petraea| ]] [[Category:100s establishments in the Roman Empire]] [[Category:630s disestablishments in the Byzantine Empire]] [[Category:Ancient Levant]] [[Category:Historical regions of Asia]] [[Category:History of Palestine (region)]] [[Category:Jordan in the Roman era]] [[Category:Late Roman Syria]] [[Category:Nabataea]] [[Category:Sinai Peninsula]] [[Category:States and territories disestablished in the 7th century]]