The plundering of Sela in 311 B.C.

The first written testimony of the existence of the Nabataeans is given in the Bibliotheca historica of the Greek historian Diodorus (Diodorus Siculus, lived about 90 - 30 BC). One of his sources are the records of Hieronymus of Cardia (ca 360 - after 272 BC), in which he describes, among other things, the attack of Macedonian troops of Antigonus Monophthalmos on a retreat of the Nabataeans on a steep mountain, which the attackers called "petra" (Greek: rock). Hieronymus stood in Antigonus' service, witnessed the clashes with the Nabataeans, and was the first Greek historian to come into personal contact with them. His comments on the nomadic way of life of the Arabs are quite benevolent, but permeated by the usual clichés and the arrogance of the Greeks towards the "barbarians".

Based on the information in this chronicle about distances, troop movements and the natural terrain, as well as the context of other events of the time, modern research has come to the conclusion that the site of the raid, referred to as "petra" in this context, cannot be in the later capital of the Nabataeans. In all probability it is Sela ("rock" in Hebrew). More about this in the following synopsis, based on the Bibliotheca historica of Diodorus [see the sources below]:

Alexander the Great conquered the Persian-occupied port city of Gaza on the Mediterranean Sea in 332 BC after a two-month siege. Since it was a final point of the Incense Road, the Greeks, seeing the warehouses full of frankincense and myrrh, became aware of the Nabataeans' caravan trade with southern Arabia and their resulting wealth.

After Alexander's death in 323 BC, his commanders, the Diadochi (successors), divided his vast empire among themselves and repeatedly waged war against each other. Antigonus Monophthalmos and Ptolemy I (king of Egypt 304 - 285 BC, founder of the Ptolemaic dynasty) fought for supremacy in Syria and the eastern Mediterranean. After Antigonus regained Phoenicia and Gaza, which had been sacked by Ptolemy, in the spring of 311 BC, the Nabataeans sent him a branch of the frankincense tree in the hope of support. But instead, this incited the greed of Antigonus. [Wenning 2011, p.12]

Under the pretext that the Nabataeans were hostile to his undertakings, Antigonus ordered his friend Athenaios to launch a surprise attack and gave him 4,000 lightly armed foot soldiers and 600 horsemen. The opportunity seemed favorable when the Nabataean men fit for military service were at a tribal meeting with market activities and only old men, women and children remained with the possessions. Since Antigonus and his son Demetrius (337/6 - 283 BC) united their forces in Phoenicia in the spring of 311 BC to move against Ptolemy in Egypt, their raid is dated to the summer of 311 BC (and not 312 BC, as is often read). The plundering and intended subjugation of the Nabataeans could also have to do with the planned Egyptian campaign to prevent possible disturbances by the Arab nomads and to be supplied with water by them. [Hackl et al. 2003, p. 450]

The troops of Antigonus under the command of Athenaeus marched undetected in three days and three nights to the mountain, which is described as extraordinarily difficult to access, although without walls. They raided the Nabataean camp on the plateau at midnight, killed many defenseless, left the wounded, and hastily departed with frankincense, myrrh, 500 talents of silver (about 13 tons), and prisoners. After 200 stadia (about 35 km) they set up camp, but neglected to keep watch because they were exhausted and did not expect to be pursued soon.

But observers of the raid and wounded men left on the mountain had alerted the Nabataean men, and prisoners who had escaped unnoticed showed them the way to the Macedonians' resting place. Allegedly, 8,000 Nabataeans (certainly a greatly exaggerated number) surprised the enemy in their sleep and killed all the foot soldiers. Only 50 mounted men could have saved themselves, most of them injured.

After the Nabataeans had retreated back to the rock with their belongings, they sent a letter in "Syriac script" (probably Aramaic) to Antigonus complaining about Athenaeus' raid and justifying their counterattack. Antigonus replied that Athenaeus had acted without his knowledge and feigned understanding for the Arabs' self-defense. He treated the Nabataeans amicably for a while in order to lull them into safety for the time being and later to attack them again. But they distrusted him and posted scouts along the access routes.