Arabia

The coinage of Arabia begins with the issues of the Nabataean kings. These, about the time of Hadrian, are superseded by the Imperial coins of the principal towns of Arabia Petraea. The era in use in these towns is the Arabian, of which the exact date is not quite fixed (A.D. 105 or 106; see Kubitscheck in Pauly-Wissowa, Realencyclop., i. 641 f.). The coinage of Arabia Felix forms a separate and distinct class.

I. KINGS OF NABATAEA

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The early Nabataeans forsook all building and agriculture because those who possess these things, in order to retain them, are easily compelled by the powerful to do their bidding. Rather than fight invaders, they would go into the desert, where only they could survive, and wait for the invaders to leave. Aretas II was a contemporary of Alexander Jannaeus. Aretas III was the first to issue coins, which he began after he defeated the Seleucid army in 84 B.C. and the council of Damascus asked him to govern their city. A Roman army under Marcus Aemilius Scaurus defeated Aretas III and besieged Petra, but paying a tribute, Aretas received formal recognition by the Roman Republic. The kingdom was slowly surrounded by the expanding Roman Empire, who conquered Egypt and annexed Judea, but wealthy from incense trade, Nabataea paid tribute and retained independence. The Nabataeans fought against Herod and also provided forces to the Romans during the Second Jewish Revolt. After the last Nabataean king, Rabbel II, died in 106 A.D., Trajan incorporated Nabataea into the Roman province Arabia Petraea. One of the latest known Nabataean language inscriptions, from 191 A.D., records "...This in the year 85 of the Eparchy [Roman Rule], in which Arabs destroyed the land." It seems likely that raiding Arab tribes extinguished what remained of a weakened Nabataean culture. In 747 A.D. what was left of the Nabataean cities was destroyed in a major earthquake.

The coins bear the portraits of the kings and their queens, sometimes jugate; other types are mentioned below.

Aretas III (Philhellen), B.C. 87-62. Æ. Types—Nike; Tyche of Damascus seated on rock, river-god at her feet; Goddess holding wreath(?) and resting on spear. Inscr., ΒΑΣΙΛΕΩΣ ΑΡΕΤΟΥ ΦΙΛΕΛΛΗΝΟΣ.

Obodas II, son of preceding. Circa B.C. 62-47. AR Phoenician didrachms. Type—Eagle. Inscr., (King Obodas, king of Nabathaea).

Malichus I, son of preceding. Circa B.C. 47-30. AR Phoenician didrachms. Type—Eagle. Inscr., (King Malichus, king of Nabathaea).

Obodas III, son of preceding. B.C. 30-9. AR Phoenician didrachms, Attic drachms, and Æ. Types—Eagle; Goddess raising r. hand. Inscr., as on coins of Obodas II, or without . Dates—years 3-20.

Aretas IV (Philopatris), brother of preceding. B.C. 9-A.D. 40. With his queens Chuldu and Shaqilath. AR Attic drachms and Æ. Types—Goddess raising r. hand; Eagle; Cornucopiae; Two cornuacopiae. Inscr., (Aretas, king of Nabathaea, lover of his people); (Aretas, king of Nabathaea); (Chuldu, queen of Nabathaea); (Shaqilath, queen of Nabathaea); (Peace), &c. Denominations— (silver obol); (silver half). Dates—years 1-16 with Chuldu, 23-48 with Shaqilath.

Malichus II, son of preceding, and his sister and wife Shaqilath. Circa A.D. 40-75. AR Phoenician drachms and Æ. Types of Æ—Two cornuacopiae. Inscr., as on coins of Malichus I, and (Shaqilath, his sister, queen of Nabathaea), &c. Dates—years 9-17.

Rabbel II (Soter), son of preceding, with his mother Shaqilath and his sister and wife Gamilath. AR Phoenician drachms and Æ. Type of Æ—Two cornuacopiae. Inscr., (Rabbel, Shaqilath, his mother); (King Rabbel, king of Nabathaea); (Gamilath, his sister, queen of Nabathaea), &c. Date—year 20(?).

II. CITIES OF ARABIA PETRAEA

Adraa, about thirty miles north-west of Bostra. Imperial, M. Aurelius to Gallienus. Inscr., ΑΔΡΑΗΝΩΝ or ΑΔΡΑΗΝΩΝ ΤΥΧΗ. Types—Astarte in temple; Baetyl of ΔΟΥCΑΡΗC ΘЄΟC (the Arabian Dionysos on alter-shaped base; Herakles seated on rock; &c. The era of Adraa is that of the province of Arabia. See Dussaud, Rev. Num., 1904, pp. 160 f.

Bostra, the capital of Roman Arabia, was situate in a fertile oasis about seventy miles south of Damascus; refounded by Trajan A.D. 105 or 106. Imperial, Hadrian to Elagabalus. Inscr., ΑΡΑΒΙΑ on coin of Hadrian, and subsequently ΤΥΧΗ ΝΕΑC ΤΡΑΙΑΝΗC ΒΟCΤΡΑC, or ΒΟCΤΡWΝ, ΒΟCΤΡΗΝWΝ, &c. Era—the Arabian. Colonial, Sev. Alexander to Treb. Gallus. Inscr., COLONIA BOSTRA, COL. METROPOLIS BOSTRA or BOSTRENORVM. Types—Tyche of the city; Three baetyls of the god Dusares (see Dussaud, Rev. Num., 1904, p. 163); Bust of Ammon (? Dusares-Ammon) with ram’s horns and globular headdress; Camel; Arab on Camel; Temples of various divinities; &c. Games, ΔΟΥCΑΡΙΑ, ΑΚΤΙΑ ΔΟΥCΑΡΙΑ, or ΑCΤΙΑ DVSΑRΙΑ.

Charach-Moba (El-Kerak, east of the Dead Sea, and south of Rabbath-Moba). Imperial of Elagabalus only. Inscr., ΧΑΡΑΧΜWΒΑ or ΧΑΡΑΧ[ΜWΒΗΝ]WΝ. Types—Tyche; Figure seated before wine-press (Babelon, Rev. Num., 1899, p. 274).

Eboda (Ptol. v. 17.4), south of Gaza and south-west of the Dead Sea, now called Abdeh. Imperial of Nero. Inscr., ΕΒWΔΗΣ. Type—Nike Apteros (Imhoof, Monn. gr., p. 450).

Esbus (Heshbon), some twenty miles north-east of the Dead Sea. Imperial of Elagabalus only. Inscr., ЄCΒΟΥC or ΑΥΡ. ЄCΒΟΥC. Types—Astarte in temple; Zeus seated; Mên (De Sauley, Terre-Sainte, p. 393).

Medaba (Mâdebâ), south-west of Esbus. Imperial of Caracalla and Elagabalus. Inscr., ΜΗΔΑΒWΝ ΤΥΧΗ. Types—Tyche; Tyche-Astarte with cornucopiae and bust of Osiris (Babelon, Mél. Numism., iii. pp. 251 f.). Era—the Arabian.

Petra, the metropolis of the Nabathaeans, adopted the surname Adriana in consequence of favors conferred upon it by Hadrian. Imperial, Hadrian to Elagabalus. Inscr., ΠЄΤΡΑ ΜΗΤΡΟΠΟΛΙC, ΑΔΡΙΑΝΗ ΠΕΤΡΑ ΜΗΤΡΟΠΟΛΙC, &c. Types—Tyche of city seated on rock; Figure sacrificing; &c. Era—the Arabian.

Philippopolis, founded by the Emperor Philip, a native of Bostra, from which place it was distant about twelve miles. It was constituted by him a Roman colony. Imperial colonial of Philip, Otacilia, and Philip Jun., and posthumous coins of Marinus, Philip’s father, reading ΘЄΩ ΜΑΡΙΝΩ. Inscr., ΦΙΛΙΠΠΩΠΩΛΙΤΩΝ ΚΟΛΩΝΙΑC S. C. Types—Roma seated or standing, &c.

Rabbath-Moba (De Sauley, Terre-Sainte, p. 354). Imperial, Antoninus Pius to Gordian. Inscr., ΡΑΒΒΑΘΜWΒΑ, ΡΑΒΒΑΘΜWΒΗΝWΝ, ΡΑΒΑΘΜΟVΒΗΝWΝ, &c, usually of very barbarous work and blundered. Era—Arabian. Types—Ares, Astarte, Poseidon, &c. The occurrence of Ares (who is seen standing to front on a pedestal, between two altars) confirms the statements of Stephanus and Eusebius that the later name of this city was Areopolis.

III. ARABIA FELIX

For the coins of South Arabia (Yemen) see Mordtmann, Num. Zeit., xii. 28; B. V. Head, Num. Chron., 1878, 273, and 1880, p. 369; Prideaux, Journ. As. Soc. Bengal, 1881, p. 95; Erman, Zeit. f. Num., ix. 296, and Kubitschek in D. H. Müller’s Südarabische Altertümer (Vienna, 1899).

The Sabaei and Homeritae (Himyarites) were from very early times down to the sixth century A.D. a powerful and prosperous people, governed by their own kings, and dwelling in the most fertile district of Arabia, which faces the Indian Ocean, and extends as far as the Persian Gulf. The highest point of their wealth and power was attained by the Himyarite dynasty, which ruled the land between the fourth century B.C. and circ. A.D. 120. Their earliest coins belong to the fourth and third centuries B.C., and consist of imitations of the older Athenian silver money, which probably found its way across the desert by the caravan route from the prosperous seaport of Gaza, where, as we have already seen, the money of Athens was also imitated. Most of these coins which come to us from Southern Arabia bear, in addition to the Athenian types, Himyarite letters or inscriptions, and sometimes an inscription in an unknown character. A small class have on the obverse, instead of the head of Athena, a beardless male head (Kubitschek, Pl. XIV. 13, 14). In the second century B.C. the Athenian types appear to have been temporarily superseded by those of Alexander the Great, then predominate in all the markets of the ancient world, a tetradrachm having been discovered by me, which bears, in the Himyarite character, the name of a king called Abyatha (Num. Chron., 1880, Pl. XV. 3).

In the second half of the first century B.C. the Athenian tetradrachms of the ‘new style’, with the Owl standing on an Amphora, served as models for the coinage of the Sabaean kings, as is proved by the important Find of San'â (B. V. Head, Num. Chron., N. S. xviii. 273). Of this later gold and silver currency there are several series, the earlier bearing on the obverse a head of Augustus, and are doubtless copied from Roman coins, which must have become known in Southern Arabia at the time of the expedition of Aelius Gallus into that country in B.C. 24. The inscriptions on these coins consist of monograms in the Himyaritic character, and of a second legend in an unknown character. After the Christian era the Himyarite coinage loses much of its importance, and the execution becomes more and more barbarous. To this later period belong small coins with local types—Beardless head, rev. Bucranium or Antelope’s head; and Beardless head on both sides, with name of mints Raidan, Na'am, Ya'ub, &c.

Although the Southern Arabians seem to have been content to copy the well-know money of the Greeks, it is remarkable that they did not adopt the Attic standard of weight. The Himyarite drachm, like the old Persian siglos, weighed 84 grs. The coin of Abyatha being a tetradrachm of Attic weight, would be equivalent to three Himyarite drachms.

DICTIONARY OF ROMAN IMPERIAL COINS

Please add updates or make corrections to the NumisWiki text version as appropriate. Arabia, one of the largest regions of Asia, between Egypt and India, divided nominally into three parts - Felix, Deserta, and Petraea; bounded by Syria and Mesopotamia on the north; by the Arabian Gulf or Red Sea on the west; and by the Indian Ocean (Erythraum Mare) on the south. Arabia Felix (Arabia the Blessed) derived its name from its great fertility. Arabia Petraea (Arabia the Rocky) lies centrally, running from north-west to southeast. Its north is extremely sterile and scantily populated but the southern portion includes fertile cultivated plains. Under Augustus the Romans sent troops into Arabia Petraea but they failed to make a conquest of it. The Arabs remained subdued until the time of Trajan. Arabia Deserta (Arabia the Desert), the smallest and northernmost district was inhabited by the Idumaeans, the Moabites, the Midianites and the Amalekites.