Aretas I.

Aretas I. (Arabic: حارثة, Harthah or Harithath ) was the first known king of the Nabataeans. He reigned in the first half of the 2nd century BC, but his exact life and government data are not known.

The name appears on an inscription that was found in the ancient Nabataean city in the Negev Elusa and dated to the year 168 BC. In addition, Aretas is mentioned in a deuterocanonical I. Source of the Bible: After the 2nd Book of Maccabees, which calls him " prince of the Arabs", he is the former, Hellenistic -minded Jewish high priest Jason after his abortive coup and his escape from Jerusalem have held briefly caught. This adds to data from the first book of the Maccabees and the Antiquities of Flavius ​​Josephus: After the Nabataeans were talking to Aretas ' reign friendly relations with Jason's opponents Judas Maccabeus and his brother Jonathan from the priestly and dynasty of the Hasmoneans.

Aretas I. and his successors it to compete against both the Ptolemaic Egypt in the west as well as against the Seleucids in the east succeeded. At the same time they were open to cultural influences from both Hellenistic kingdoms, such as the buildings in the Nabataean capital of Petra prove.