Seleucid Empire Parthian Empire Arab Palmyra Baalbek Petra Kingdom of Araba
Seleucid Empire Parthian Empire Arab Palmyra Baalbek Petra Kingdom of Araba
Seleucid Empire Parthian Empire Arab Palmyra Baalbek Petra Kingdom of Araba
After its
capture by the Parthian Empire, it flourished during the 1st and 2nd centuries AD as a
religious and trading center.[3] Later on, the city became the capital of possibly the first Arab
Kingdom in the chain of Arab cities running from Hatra, in the northeast, via Palmyra,
Baalbek and Petra, in the southwest. The region controlled from Hatra was the Kingdom of
Araba, a semi-autonomous buffer kingdom on the western limits of the Parthian Empire,
governed by Arabian princes.
Hatra became an important fortified frontier city and withstood repeated attacks by the
Roman Empire, and played an important role in the Second Parthian War. It repulsed the
sieges of both Trajan (116/117) and Septimius Severus (198/199).[4] Hatra defeated the
Iranians at the battle of Shahrazoor in 238, but fell to the Iranian Sassanid Empire of Shapur I
in 241 and was destroyed.[4] The traditional stories of the fall of Hatra tell of an-Nadira,
daughter of the King of Araba, who betrayed the city into the hands of Shapur. The story tells
of how Shapur killed the king and married an-Nadira, but later had her killed also.[3]
Hatra was the best preserved and most informative example of a Parthian city. It was
encircled by inner and outer walls nearly 4 miles (6 km) in circumference and supported by
more than 160 towers. A temenos () surrounded the principal sacred buildings in the
citys centre. The temples covered some 1.2 hectares and were dominated by the Great
Temple, an enormous structure with vaults and columns that once rose to 30 metres. The city
was famed for its fusion of Greek, Mesopotamian, Canaanite, Aramean and Arabian
pantheons, know