I. ARETAS, King of Arabia. There are many Princes of this name in Arabia. Josephus1 speaks of a King Aretas, who was Antipater’s great friend, and not only received Hircanus, the High-Priest and Prince of the Jews, at the time when he was dispossessed of his dignity by his Brother Aristobulus, but undertook likewise to re-instate him in his Kingdom; to this end he marched against Aristobulus with an Army of fifty thousand Arabians, defeated him, and obliged him to fly for safety to Jerusalem, whither Aretas followed, and In the Year of the World 3939, before J. C. 61, before the vulgar Æra 65.besieged him. The City was already in the possession of the King of the Arabians, and Aristobulus was master of the Temple only, where he was defending himself with the Priests, when Scaurus, sent by Pompey came to Damascus: Aristobulus and Hircanus sent Ambassadors to him, and promised him large sums of money to ingage him in their party. Scaurus preferr’d the offers made by Aristobulus, whose wealth and liberality were well known to him, and obliged Aretas to quit the siege of the Temple, threatning, in case of his refusal, to declare him an enemy to the Roman people. Aretas therefore returned into his own country, but not without interruptions in the way: for Aristobulus marched against him and Hircanus with a powerful Army, and giving him battle in a place called Papyron, killed about seven thousand of his men.
In the Year of the World 3942, before J. C. 56, before the vulgar Æra 60.Three or four years after Scaurus, whom Pompey had left Governour of Judæa, marched against Aretas2; but as he could not march his Army as far as Petra, the capital of Arabia Deserta, by reason of the difficulty of the ways, and the unevenness of the country, he pillaged all the neighbouring places. But his Troops at last suffering by famine, he deputed Antipater to go to Aretas, ingage him to make peace, and to pay a sum of money to prevent the farther ravaging his country. Aretas gave three hundred talents, and so the War was ended as much to the advantage of Scaurus as of Aretas. It is said, that when Scaurus was Ædile, he struck a medal, on which was represented a King of the Barbarians on his knees before him, presenting him with a Crown borne upon a camel’s back, with this Inscription, Marcus Scaurus Ædile had this medal struck by order of the Senate. And at the bottom: King Aretas3.
Read this article in its place on the printed pages