Aretas IV Philopatris

Aretas IV Philopatris ( Harithath; . Eigentl Aeneas ) was King of the Nabataeans about 9 BC to 40 AD He is regarded as one of the most famous kings of the Nabataeans and is therefore referred to as " Aretas the Great". Under his rule, the Nabataean kingdom reached its peak.

At 9 BC, Aeneas was after the death of his ( presumed ) brother Obodas III. as King Aretas of the Nabateans. His kinship to the royal court could never be fully understood. The suffix " IV " is merely a modern numbering of the famous Nabatean kings. On Nabataean inscriptions it is called usually: Aretas, king of Nabatu who loves his people. Therefore, the addition Philopatris, " loves his country ". Aretas IV had two wives: Huldu ( Chuldu, 1-16 ) and Shaqilath ( Shuqeilat, his sister, from 23 ).

His daughter Phasaelis married Herod Antipas. After Herod had divorced her to marry his brother's Herodias the mother of Salome, the woman, Phaesalis fled back to her father. The relations between Herod and Aretas were previously strained over border disputes, and so Aretas fell in Winter 36/37 into Judea and took the area along the Jordan in possession, including the areas around Qumran. The historian Flavius ​​Josephus joined this battle with the beheading of John the Baptist, which occurred about the same time and the Herod Antipas had ordered. In the Nabataean capital of Petra Aretas had a theater with seating for 85,000 spectators build. The Nabataean Empire reached under his reign the greatest extent: in the south the northern Hejaz (above Hegra ), in the west the Sinai Peninsula and the north of the Hauran.

The New Testament reports that Aretas was Paul of Tarsus pursue

" In Damascus the governor of King Aretas was guarding the city of Damascus to arrest me. But through a window in a basket was I let down the city walls and so I escaped him. "

Aretas IV died around the year 40, his oldest son Malichus II became his successor. With 49 years of Aretas had the longest reign of all known Nabataean kings.