Nabatea Ascendent

So was brainstorming with Cuauhtemoc last night about a Nabataean Kingdom having more success in its time period, and so here is a rough TL of what we had so far.


116 BC
The increasing decay and destruction of the Selecuid Empire reaches a new highpoint with a civil war bewteen Antiochus VIII Epiphanes and Antiochus IX Eusebes over control over the crumbling remants of the empire. With this new internal turmoil in the Selecuid Empire, John Hyrcanus, Hasmonean ruler of Judea takes the opportunity to expand Judea's control over the surrounding principalities.

110 BC POD
Wishing to invade Madaba and Shechem, he looks south to the Nabataean Kingdom under Rabbel I who obliges with a force under his successor Arteas II. Arteas II is quite wary of the ambition of the Hyrcanus, that only grows upon meeting the man and gleaming what exactly Hyrcanus plans for those within and without of Judea. Therefore, Arteas II betrays Hyrcanus and in an ambush kills Hyrcanus and the Hasmonean forces outside of Madaba, marching back into Judea, Arteas II invades Judea along with reinforcements from Nabatea, establishing rule over the region.

100-89 BC
Remembering the Macabee Revolt, the Nabataeans institute a more religious tolerant attitude towards the Jews, allowing them their high priest and control over such affairs within Jeruselum which comes to head in a peaceful, deflation of the influence of the more hardliner rabbis who decry the rule of pagans. Once Arteas II takes rule in 100BC he continues conquest of Judea, expanding and consolidating Nabatea's long held control over the trade routes through the Levant and Arabia. During this time his dealings with the Parthians, Egypt, Selecuids, and the Romans was cordial as he maintained a policy of neutrality besides the larger powers to his south and east. He also notably begins a long policy of encouraging fellow Arabians to migrate into the fertile region of the Levant and their Hellenization as Petra was rebuilt and soon grew to over 20,000 residents.

89 BC-83 BC

Arteas II dies of sickness in 89BC, the throne of Nabatea goes to Obodas I who looks northward into Syria where the feuding family factions invite him to make one of them ruler of Syria. Instead Obodas I opts to invade Syria and take it for himself, putting down the carcass of the Selecuid Empire which to all neighbors is something of a relief as the violence in the region finally ends. Remants of the Selecuid family flee to the surrounding empires, kept in their backpocket to be useful pawns if the need ever came for a revitalized Selecuid puppet. The much enlargened Nabataean Kingdom would provide a rich target when attacked by Armenian King, Tigranes.
 
Good start Malta, very good start. As I said, we never do get timelines that feature the Nabatean Arabs in a prominent role. Please continue.
 
Mithridatic War Period

89-83BC
The conquests by Obodas I vastly enlarged the size of the Nabataean Kingdom for it incorporated Syria which finally managed to let off a gasp of relief as the feuding amongst the Seleucid remants died down and let in a newwave of Hellenistic influence from the greek influenced coastal cities, namely Antioch, that Obodas I was hesitent to resist (but fully supported by his successor). Now with a rather large kingdom that made Nabatea one of the second great powers of the Near East the main problem Obodas initially faced was governance, which he remidied with a healthy push of Arab nomadic migrants with every season from Arabia and incorporating the help of friendly factions amongst the Jews, Syrians, and Greeks to help run the Kingdom. This interestingly enough quickly lead to what was first commented on as a hodge podge army for the Nabatean Kingdom as it consisted of Nabataean Camel Calvalry, Judean and Canaan Peltast Infantry, Syrian Archers, and Heavy Infantry and Calvalry from the Greek port cities. It would soon be put to the test when Tigranes of Armenia extended his control into Mesopotamia at the expense of the Parthians.

83-73BC
Recorded as the Syrian War, considered by later scholars as a theater of the Mithridatic Wars, Tigranes launched a invasion of Syria while using the pretext of his own claim to the Seleucid throne to justify his actions. The Nabataeans scrambled a hasty force to push back Tigranes at Palmyra but were defeated, and the Armenians marched on Damascus while being hounded by Bedouin raiders. Obodas I in poor health sent his sucessor, Aretas III to deal with Tigranes as he besieged Damascus and gathering his forces managed to rout Tigranes from his siege. Following this victory and the pursuit of Tigranes to kick him from the country it was soon discovered that Obodas I had died and thereupon the various forces of the Nabataean army declared Aretas III the King of Nabatea (while he would hold a celebration in Damascus he would return to Petra to recieve offical rulership). Aretas III crossed the Euphrates and occupied Edessa but in the following year lost it as Tigranes counterattack from further in the mountains. From there the war devolved into a series of hit and run attacks across the Euphrates that eventually petered out.

73-63BC
Importantly during the closing events of the Syrian War, which opened to what Rome would call the Third Mithdrates War, the Nabataeans came into increasing contact with Rome. In 70BC Aretas III conqured the pirate haven of Cilicia which was met with thanks from Rome which had extended its power into Greece and the Anatolia, main targets of said pirates, and sent a delegation and gift to Aretas III.[1] As the war continued against Armenia and Pontus, Aretas III soon in talks with Rome to start new economic treaties as well as rights to conquered land launched a attack on Armenia capturing northern Mesopotamia with the fall of the Armenian fort at Nisbis in 68BC.

Sheltering the constantly mutinying forces of Lucullus, the Nabataeans became a go bewteen for Rome and Parthia, enlisting the aid of Phraates III against Armenia and Pontus by offering captured territory east of the Tigris river. Parthia soon supported Tigranes the Great's young son also named Tigranes to replaces his father on the throne and with a mix of Parthian and some Nabataean forces invaded Armenia while Rome replaced Lucullus with Pompey. Tigranes the Great was soon put into a unwinnable position as his forces were defeated by Roman, Parthian, and Nabataean, taking to the hills and resorting to guerilla fighting as Parthia and Nabatea sought to establish his son. The problem in this was that the Armenian capital of Artaxata was left well defended and would not fall without a protracted siege. Phaartes III soon left fearing trouble at home and Arteas III did the same realizing that while the war was ended this was a lost cause. Unsurprisingly, Pompey after dealing with Mithridates negotiated with the extreamly old Tigranes and sacked his son while making the father a client of Rome.

Rome's power in the Anatolia was soon established, Phaartes III retained power until 57BC but Parthian rule in Northern Mesopotamia was tenuous, and Nabatea was quick to stand bewteen Rome and Parthia by extending trade routes of valuable items such as silk and myrrh to Rome and helping Parthia maintain a grip east of the Tigris river. Pompey soon returned to Rome.
 
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63-53 BC
Living on until 59 BC, Aretas III continued with the hellenization of Nabatea, something that was welcomed by many of the Greek Syrians as he took the nickname Philohellenos to his name. Building many new architecture in Judea, Syria, and Nabatea-going as far to rebuild Petra in such a stylle! Though this was not a process entierly accepted by the Nabataeans or the Bedouin who he sought to form the backbone of the Nabataean Kingdom, while several revolts did emerge from this quarter they would show respect. He was known amongst his own people as The Lion, in respect towards the Nabataeans chief goddess, Al-Uzza, because lions were considered sacred to her.

His reign was picked up by his son Obodas II, so named after his deceased uncle and older brother to Aretas III. Under his rule he would continue the policy of neutrality and interfearing with neighboring politics that had so far done well for Nabatea. Namely, ensuring Nabataean ships on the Red Sea after briefly threatening Ptolemaic Egypt.

It would only be in the latter years of his reign that events became much more interesting with the arrival and death of Crassus in the Anatolia and the death of the Parthian King Phaartes by his sons.

53BC
The success of the Triumvirate in Rome bewteen Crassus, Pompey, and Caesar divided the Roman Republic's proconsularship bewteen the three men with Caesar in Gaul, Pompey in Hispania, and Crassus gaining the eastern portions of Republic in Greece and the Anatolia. Nabatea had a friendly policy with Rome, the secret of the Nabataeans being their source of far easterrn trade goods that arrived in their port of Aqaba and went to Petra before being dispersed into Roman markets was a mystery to Crassus and he wanted it. The reasons for Crassus's sudden attack on the Nabataeans was unknown to anyone and Rome, perhaps he wanted wealth for himself, or wealth for Rome's public treasury, or to gain military glory for himself. Whatever the reason, Crassus attacked Antioch in 53BC and his forces were utterly defeated by the swift riding Nabataean calvalry and combined arms of the Syrian Archers and Judean Peltasts.

Crassus was said to be killed from a fall off his horse when it was upset by the sight and smell of the Nabataean's camels. Nontheless, the Nabataeans took his forces into custody until the arrival of ambassadors from Rome offering peace. While the majority of the Roman survivors would be shipped back to Rome, many would also use the chance to desert and spread the Roman infantry tactics to the Nabataeans once commisioned in their army.

King Phaartes in Parthia was killed by his sons Orodes II and Mithridates III of Parthia, Orodes ruled as King while Mithridates was made king of Media and soon asked the Nabataeans to help him in overthrowing his brother. Instead, Obodas II turned him into his brother and he was executed, while Nabatea earned the respect and thanks of Parthia. Parthia soon invaded Armenia, where the Parthian General Surena set himself up as King and battled his former King and ensuring their attention would be focused away from Nabatea.

49-48BC
Not long after the death of Crassus, the balance of power within the Roman Republic quickly deteriorated as Caesar and Pompey grew apart from one another and then came to blows when Caesar crossed the rubicon. Fighting and fleeing, Pompey was pushed into Roman Greece where he was defeated by Caesar and forced to flee with his family. They decided to flee to Ptolemaic Egypt which seemed sympatheic to Pompey at the time, but upon arrival Pompey was assasinated by Pothinus, the eunuch puppet behind the young egyptian ruler Ptolmey XIII.

Nabatea had discovered that Pompey's ship was headed to or was in Egypt, and while remaining neutral during the events of the Civil War, following news of Pompey's defeat saw opportunity. Obodas II's sucessor Malichus crossed the Sinai and invaded Egypt, using the excuse of aiding Caesat to seize Egypt for themselves, a goal that had been long wanted considering Egypt was also a major market for Rome in eastern goods and undercut their land routes. Taking the body of Pompey he sent it back to Rome which earned him the respect of Caesar and the Roman people once again-damping Roman objections to his seizure of Ptolemic Egypt and Cyprus.

Malichus deposed of Ptolmey XIII and Pothinus and the majority of the royal family with the exception for the king's sister, Cleopatra VII. Smitten by her beauty, he married her into his harem and in 47BC became king.
 
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40 BC Arrival of Three Jewels

As Malichus I consolidated his control over the Levant and Egypt, Cleopatra bore him a son in 45 BC, nameing him al-Iksander in honor of Obodas the Great, and to show off the Nabataean claim on the throne of Egypt while still strengthening the hellenistic fandom. While events unfolded westward, Malichus busied himself with expanding the control of Nabatea eastward and so he looked to his people's ancient homeland of Arabia. With the capture of Egypt, Nabatea now had total control over the passage of trade from what was considered the Orient, Parathian merchants going overland would trade in Nabatea and likewise Arab, Indian, and Nabataean merchants went to southern Red Sea ports and would continue by sea or land to Nabatea Proper or Egypt. In what was considered a orchestrated dispute with the merchants along the Arabian coast of the Red sea over price gouges, Malichus invaded the lands of his anscestors. By sea and by land the forces of Nabatea sweapt along the coastline of the Arabian Peninsula, bribing allegences and putting resistant villages as he went but not that far inland, the farthest of which was to take the city of Mecca after the ruler of Jedda fled there. Reaching the entrance to the Red Sea he more or less forced the City-States of the area into a vassal relationship, including the port of Adulis on the otherside of the Red Sea. This conquest went on from 45-38BC and during this course new events unfolded further east in the remote region of Hindu Kush.

The Yuezhi, Kushan, and Scythian peoples began to enter the region, harassing the Indo-Greek states of the area. The Indo-Greek Kingdoms were a series of Greek ruled states, leftovers from Alexander's Conquests and the Decay of the Seleucids. There they practised a unique form of Buddhism, that blended the Greek Gods with Buddhism and other elements of Greek philosophies. The advance of the people from the Steppe caused people to scatter, some going to be protected by the remaining Indo-Greek cities or eastward into India while a few would make a trek by land or sea to their homeland lost in the West. Instead they ended up in Nabatea with merchants, some being absorbed by various cities along the route and foreign cultures but a few found their way to Nabatea and thrived passing along their culture. It was in 40BC when returning from South Arabia that Malichus encountered a troupe of Buddhist Monks in Muza and brought them home to Nabatea on his personal ship.

Listening to the history and tenets the Buddhist Monks expoused, Malichus I was fascinated and converted on his arrival to Petra, where he asked half of the monks to stay and the others to go back to their homeland and bring more of their people (and money and art) to Nabatea!
 
Hooray for Indo-Greeks! Doing my Master's Thesis on them :p

So, a strong Greco-Buddhist presence in a Kingdom placed alongside the major hellenised powers of the day... Should have interesting consequences down the line.
 
Hooray for Indo-Greeks! Doing my Master's Thesis on them :p

So, a strong Greco-Buddhist presence in a Kingdom placed alongside the major hellenised powers of the day... Should have interesting consequences down the line.

Ah well if your interested I have a friend who knows alot of Greco-Buddhist history and has moved toward reconstructing Greco-Buddhism

http://neosalexandria.org/syncretism/the-syncretism-of-tykhe-hariti/
http://neosalexandria.org/syncretism/alexandrias-of-the-east/
http://neosalexandria.org/syncretism/greco-buddhism-a-brief-history/
 
I am very much enjoying this timeline though the Indo Greek kingdoms were leftovers of Demetrius' (temporary) conquest of northern India in the final years of the Maurya's existence, not a direct legacy of Alexander so I had to nitpick at that. :p
 
I am very much enjoying this timeline though the Indo Greek kingdoms were leftovers of Demetrius' (temporary) conquest of northern India in the final years of the Maurya's existence, not a direct legacy of Alexander so I had to nitpick at that. :p

Technically Alexander Conquered the region and then Seleucids took over then the Greco-Bactarians seceded then the Indo Greek Kingdom in 'India' rose and seceded under Demetrius.
 
21 BC
Known in history as the beginning of the Celestial Empire. The Celestial Empire itself is construct of later historians to mark a set period for the Nabataean Kingdom beginning with the rise of Alexander Helios the Great, otherwise known as Iskandar Shams I. Though during this period and following Alexander Helios's rule there would be a great amount of celestial iconography attached to the rulers of this period the referred name continued to be the Nabataean Kingdom.

Alexander Helios born to Malichus and Cleopatra VII and from his birth was watched over and groomed by his mother to rule Nabatea. Despite using her influence over the King she over the years still had her work cut out through manuvering through Malichus's two other wives but was 'lucky' in that one only produced daughters and the other's son died in his teenage years from disease. Still Cleopatra and Alexander Helios had to deal with alongside Malichus several minor revolts against the Hellenization of the ethnic Nabateans. Once majority nomads their people had moved into the urban lifestyle from merchants to administrators and bureaucrats within the Nabataean Kingdom with the exception of a few tribes. From 47 BC to his death Malichus is well credited with ensuring domestic peace and consolidation over the Red Sea and Egypt into the Nabataean Kingdom and empire. His grandest feat besides encouraging the spread of Buddhist monasteries from Petra to Antioch to Gaza to Jeruselum and Alexandria would have to be managing Parthia which had divulged into civil war and managing Rome under the Second Triumvirate. With Antony in the East and Octavian in the West, Malichus knew full well the dangers of both men. Should both men unite then Nabatea would be hard pressed in the Anatolia and could see an invasion of Egypt. Likewise even not united Malichus had to deal with the hungry gaze of Antony who looked to conquer Armenia which had been seized by Parthian military generals.

The staring contest bewteen the two Consuls finally came to a head in 27 BC when an attempt by Antony to seize Illyricum soon grew into outright civil war bewteen the two men. While some in Nabatea argued that Malichus should intervene in the Roman Civil War, Malichus refused to do so merely keeping soldiers near the border in Tarus and the Eastern Anatolia and sending messages of Antony's troop movements to Octavian. The message that Malichus made here was quite clear to the Soon-To-Be-Emperor, 'You stay out of our affairs, and we will stay out of yours.'. The war ended in 23 BC with Antony's execution in Rome following his capture at the Battle of Byzantium. In the two year period prior to Malichus's death, Octavian concentrated in subduing Gaul and Hispania.
 
MAPTASTIC
Nabatea.png
 
21 BC -19 BC
Nabataean-Parthian War "Second March of Alexander"

Sitting on his throne in Petra, Iksander, already knew that the adventure that he was about to embark on would ensure himself in the annals of history. As great as the man he embodied. Great enough to write a new chapter in history that would echo through the halls of history.

With his father, Malichus, dead and the throne now his he already had enough excuses to embark on the invasion of Parthia. Besides being groomed by his mother, Cleopatra VII, from the time of his childhood in the ways of political intrigue and at the same time the stories of Alexander the Great. The Parthian realm had up to this point owed the majority of its exsistance to Nabatea keeping the Greeks and Romans at bay and interfering in several different civil wars. Though, he also needed a political victory for Nabatea. By expanding the realm he desired to show the more traditional nobles that the son of a foreign queen could give great glory and wealth to Petra. It would also be a message to Rome, to call on the deal that neither would interfere in the other's domestic politics and show off Nabatea's still powerful military might.

Martial forces from across the Kingdom he struck for the Tigris and Euphrates river clearing away any resistance that faced him and struck at the capital at Ctesiphon. Sweeping away the defending army he quickly captured the capital and the Parthian King Tridates II - who he had strangled. The tottering house of Parthia, its supports rickety and burned by Nabatea and Rome, finally collapsed in a heap of dust and rubble. He also took the time to take a wife from Tridates's daughter, Aka subsuming the royal lineage into his own. Marching across Parthia he swatted aside rebelling Satraps and Loyalist forces victory after victory being hefted upon his name. Still seeking glory he marched into Bactria and brought the area into his rule by gaining the allegiance of the local cities and nomadic chiefs.

By the time of his return to Petra he was declared the Second Alexander and he also had two bouncing, baby boys. Twins by his wife who he named Saiph and Rasalesad. Declaring that his two sons would not fight and would strengthen the Nabataean Kingdom from 'East to West' divided the Kingdom into two administrative halves and gave to each of his sons one. Saiph was given everything on the western bank of the Tigris river, and Rasalesad was given everything east of it.
 
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