Aretas III

Aretas III /ˈærᵻtəs/ (Arabic: حارثة‎‎ Ḥārthah; Greek: Αρέτας Arétās) was king of the Nabataean kingdom from 87 to 62 BCE. Aretas ascended to the throne upon the death of his brother, Obodas I, in 87 BCE. During his reign, he extended his kingdom to cover what now forms the northern area of Jordan, the south of Syria, and part of Saudi Arabia. Probably the greatest of Aretas' conquests was that of Damascus, which secured his country's place as a serious political power of its time. Nabataea reached its greatest territorial extent under Aretas' leadership.

Damascus straddled the primary commercial route from the Mediterranean Sea to India and the Middle East. In taking the city from the loosening grip of the Seleucid Empire in 85 BCE, Aretas III brought the Nabataeans from a backward nomadic tribe to a minor Eurasian power. In an attempt to cover his nomadic background, Aretas styled himself Aretas III Philhellen (friend of the Greeks). He ordered the mints of Damascus to produce the first silver Nabataean coins, in a Hellenic style and lettering his name in the Greek language instead of Nabatean Aramaic. To further reinforce the new culture of the Nabataeans, Aretas endeavoured to bring architecture of Greek and Roman fashion to the Nabataean capital, Petra, and to new settlements such as Humayma, including a 26.8 km aqueduct. Nabataean rule of Damascus was interrupted in 72 BCE by a successful siege led by the Armenian king Tigranes II. Armenian rule of the city ended in 69 BCE when Tigranes' forces were pulled out to deal with a Roman attack on the Armenian capital, allowing Aretas to re-take the city.

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