About sixty-three
years before Christ, Pompey took Petra; and, from that period, the
sovereigns of Idumea were tributary to the Romans. This city, however,
still retained its commerce, and was in a flourishing condition, as we are
informed by Strabo, on the authority of his friend Athenedorus, who visited
it about thirty-six years after it. He describes it as built on a rock,
distinguished, however, from all the rocks in that part of Arabia, from
being supplied with an abundant spring of water. Its natural position, as
well as art, rendered it a fortress of importance in the desert. He
represents the people as rich, civilized, and peaceable; the government as
regal, but the chief power as lodged in a minister selected by the king,
who had the title of the king's brother. Syllaeus, who betrayed Elius
Gallus, appears to have been a minister of this description.
The next mention that occurs of the trade of Petra is in the Periplus of
the Erythrean Sea, the date of which, though uncertain, there is good
reason to fix in Nero's reign. According to this work, Leuke Kome, at the
mouth of the Elanitic Gulf, was the point of communication with Petra, the
capital of the country, the residence of Malachus, the king of the
Nabathians. "Leuke Kome, itself, had the rank of a mart in respect to the
small vessels which obtained their cargoes in Arabia, for which reason
there was a garrison placed in it, under the command of a centurion, both
for the purpose of protection, and in order to collect a duty of
twenty-five in the hundred.
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