Malichus I.

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Location of Petra , the capital of the kingdom of Malichus I.

Malichus I. (also Malchos , Malichos , Nabatean Maliku ) was from about 59 BC. Chr. Up to V 30. Chr. King of the Nabataeans . He was the father of Obodas III. His residence was in Petra . Only a few coins are known of him.

Life

For an unknown reason, the Roman governor of Syria, Aulus Gabinius , led in 55 BC. War against Malichus. When Gaius Iulius Caesar in the autumn of 48 BC BC got into distress during the Alexandrian War , he sent some confidants to the surrounding provinces to request support, and Malichus was also asked to send cavalrymen. Beginning of March 47 BC In BC (according to the pre-Julian calendar, at the beginning of January 47 BC according to the Julian calendar ) Mithridates of Pergamon appeared before Pelusion with a relief army that he wanted to bring to Caesar , and the Idumaean Antipater joined him with a 3,000-strong Jewish army Army detachment and talked to Arab and other princes about the provision of further auxiliary troops. Malichus now also sent reinforcements to Caesar in the form of camel riders .

When Herod the Great 40 BC He had to flee his empire before the Parthians invaded Syria and Asia Minor, he hoped at least pecuniary support from Malichus. But this refused Herod in order not to become enemies with the mighty Parthians. Because of their favor, the Nabatean king had to 39 BC. To pay a fine to the Roman general Publius Ventidius Bassus, who was successful in fighting the Parthians .

36 BC BC the triumvir Marcus Antonius enlarged the realm of his lover, the Egyptian queen Cleopatra VII , and gave her parts of the territory of Herod the great and Malichus. The latter had to cede rich bitumen deposits to Cleopatra in an area at the southern end of the Dead Sea . In this context, the Jewish historian Flavius ​​Josephus reports that both Herod and Malichus continued to maintain control over the areas of their empires that fell to the Egyptian queen. Herod paid Cleopatra an annual rent of 200 talents for his part of the empire, which was only nominally subordinate to her, a district around Jericho , and also leased the Nabatean territories acquired by Cleopatra for the same amount and leased the latter back to Malichus. The Jewish king had to assume liability and guarantee that Cleopatra also regularly received the rent for her Nabatean possessions. The ancient historians Manfred Clauss and Christoph Schäfer mean, however, that Malichus and Herodes were still able to make a profit from the affected areas despite the lease payments imposed on them.

When Antonius 32 BC BC set out for the decisive battle against Octavian , Malichus also sent him auxiliary troops. However, the Nabatean king had become increasingly late in paying the amounts due to Cleopatra, which is why Herod had planned to force him to do so by force of arms. Due to the impending Roman civil war, Herod decided to rush to help Antony with an army. According to the portrayal of Josephus, Antonius sent the Jewish king back at Cleopatra's instigation to fight Malichus because of his unreliability in paying the rent; in reality, however, Cleopatra had hoped that a military confrontation between Herod and Malichus would weaken both opponents very much and would therefore be of advantage to her.

Christoph Schäfer does not believe this version; since Malichus responded to Antonius' call for army succession, it seemed nonsensical that the Roman triumvir wanted Herod to war against him. Rather, Malichus ruled over a heterogeneous group of Arab tribes, some of whom would not have wanted to support his course loyal to Rome, but instead became militarily active on their own near Diospolis / Dion in the Decapolis, which was then subordinate to the Ptolemaic Empire . Mlalichus was probably not involved in the subsequent battles, Josephus further reports that Herod defeated the Nabataeans at Diospolis and that he would have succeeded in the same in a second battle at Kanatha if Cleopatra's strategist Athenion had not intervened in favor of the Nabateans. Here Schäfer strongly doubts Athenion's alleged intervention, while Michael Grant is generally less skeptical of Josephus' portrayal. In any case, after his defeat at Kanatha, Herod had to limit himself to a guerrilla war and was only able to do so in the middle of 31 BC. BC to win the decisive victory over the Nabataeans in heavy fighting near Philadelpheia (today's Amman ).

Not long after Antony and Cleopatra's defeat in the battle of Actium against Octavian (September 2, 31 BC) and their return to Egypt, Arabs living near Petra, subjects of Malichus, burned to death at the instigation of the Roman governor of Syria, Quintus Didius , Cleopatra's ships to the Gulf of Suez , with which the Egyptian queen would have wanted to flee across the Red Sea if necessary . Around the beginning of 30 BC Malichus is said to have promised to support old Hyrcanus II in his supposedly planned revolt against Herod, which the Jewish king used to execute Hyrcanus. This is the last mention of Malichus by name in the ancient sources.

literature

Remarks

  1. ↑ Flavius ​​Josephus , Jüdische Antiquities 14, 103.
  2. ^ Caesar, Civil War 3, 112, 6; [Caesar], Alexandrian War 1, 1; Josephus, Jüdische Antiquities 14, 128 f.
  3. ↑ Josephus, Jüdische Antiquities 14, 370-373; Josephus, Jewish War 274 ff.
  4. ^ Cassius Dio , Roman History 48, 41, 5.
  5. ↑ Josephus, Jüdische Antiquities 15, 94; 15.96; 15, 106f .; Plutarch , Antonius 36, 3; Cassius Dio, Roman History 49, 32, 5.
  6. ^ Manfred Clauss, Kleopatra , Beck, Munich 1995, ISBN 3-406-39009-9 , p. 59 f .; Christoph Schäfer, Cleopatra , p. 158.
  7. ↑ Plutarch, Antonius 61, 2.
  8. ↑ Josephus, Jüdische Antiquities 15, 107 f.
  9. ↑ Josephus, Jüdische Antiquities 15, 109 f.
  10. ↑ Christoph Schäfer, Cleopatra , p. 199 f.
  11. ↑ Josephus, Jüdische Antiquities 15, 111-119; Josephus, Jewish War 1, 366-369; on this Schäfer, Cleopatra , p. 200 f. and Michael Grant, Cleopatra , p. 271.
  12. ↑ Josephus, Jüdische Antiquities 15, 120-160; Josephus, Jewish War 1, 370-385.
  13. ↑ Plutarch, Antonius 69, 4f .; Cassius Dio 51, 7, 1.
  14. ↑ Josephus, Jüdische Antiquities 15, 164-182; Josephus, Jewish War 1, 433.
personal data
SURNAME Malichus I.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION King of the Nabataeans
DATE OF BIRTH 2nd century BC BC or 1st century BC Chr.
DATE OF DEATH after 30 BC Chr.