Antigonus could not safely attempt to march through the desert in the face of Ptolemy’s army.  He had, therefore, first, either to conquer or gain the friendship of the Nabataeans, a warlike race of Arabs, who held the north of Arabia; and then he might march by Petra, Mount Sinai, and the coast of the Red Sea, without being in want of water for his army.  The Nabataeans were the tribe at an earlier time called Edomites.  But they lost that name when they carried it to the southern portion of Judaea, then called Idumaea; for when the Jews regained Idumaea, they called these Edomites of the desert Nebaoth or Nabataeans.  The Nabataens professed neutrality between Antigonus and Ptolemy, the two contending powers; but the mild temper of Ptolemy had so far gained their friendship that the haughty Antigonus, though he did not refuse their pledges of peace, secretly made up his mind to conquer them.  Petra, the city of the Nabataeans, is in a narrow valley between steep overhanging rocks, so difficult of approach that a handful of men could guard it against the largest army.  Not more than two horsemen can ride abreast through the chasm in the rock by which it is entered from the east, while the other entrance from the west is down a hillside too steep for a loaded camel.

[Illustration:  062.jpg on the coast of the red sea]

The Eastern proverb reminds us that “Water is the chief thing;” and a large stream within the valley, in addition to the strength of the fortress, made it a favourite resting-place for caravans, which, whether they were coming from Tyre or Jerusalem, were forced to pass by this city in their way to the Incense Country of Arabia Felix, or to the Elanitic Gulf of the Red Sea, and for other caravans from Egypt to Dedam on the Persian Gulf.  These warlike Arabs seem to have received a toll from the caravans, and they held their rocky fastness unconquered by the great nations which surrounded them.  Their temples and tombs were cut out of the live rock, and hence the city was by the Jews named Selah, (the rock), and by the Greeks named Petra, from which last the country was sometimes called Arabia Petraea.

Antigonus heard that the Nabataeans had left Petra less guarded than usual, and had gone to a neighbouring fair, probably to meet a caravan from the south, and to receive spices in exchange for the woollen goods from Tyre.  He therefore sent forward four thousand light-armed foot and six hundred horse, who overpowered the guard and seized the city.  The Arabs, when they heard of what had happened, returned in the night, surrounded the place, came upon the Greeks from above, by paths known only to themselves, and overcame them with such slaughter that, out of the four thousand six hundred men, only fifty returned to Antigonus to tell the tale.