ARETA (Hāriṭah). — Nabataean kings who, Petra (v.), ruled over Arabia from the Gulf of Elana to Damascus.
A. I is mentioned by Flavius Josephus as the “tyrannos” of the Arabs; the wicked Jewish high priest Jason fled to him (II Mach. 5:8).
A. II waged war against the Hasmonaean Alexander Jannaeus, whom he defeated near Adida, close to Lydda (Flavius Josephus, Antiq. Iud., XIII, 15, 2).
Under A. III (ca. 85–60 B.C.) the Nabataean kingdom reached its greatest extent. After defeating Antiochus VII of Syria (d. in 83 B.C.), A. seized Coelesyria and Damascus. He became involved in the Jewish civil war, taking the side of Hyrcanus against Aristobulus, whom he besieged in Jerusalem; but he was forced by Scaurus, Pompey’s lieutenant, who had recently annexed Syria to Rome (63 B.C.), to abandon the siege, and during the retreat he was defeated by Aristobulus near Papyron (Flavius Josephus, Antiq. Iud., XIV, 1, 4–2, 3).
The best-known representative of the dynasty is A. IV (9 B.C.–A.D. 40), who was formerly called Aeneas, son of Obodas III, and was recognized by Augustus as king of the Nabataeans. He had given his daughter in marriage to Antipas (v.). When Antipas repudiated Herodias (v.), A. sought to avenge the affront and in 36 defeated Antipas near Gamala. But Tiberius, to whom the latter had appealed, ordered Vitellius, governor of Syria, to seize A., alive or dead. The order, however, was not carried out because of the subsequent death of the emperor (16 March 37). When St Paul (II Cor. 11:32) was being sought for execution by the Jews in Damascus, the “ethnarch of A.” had placed guards around the city to capture him. It would therefore seem that A. had jurisdiction over Damascus between 37 and 40, perhaps granted to him by Caligula. But A.’s authority over Damascus is not certain: his ethnarch, in fact, did not arrest Paul in the city, but merely had its approaches watched (Act. 9:24).