Malichus II

Malichus II ( Maliku, Malichos, Malchos , also Manichu ) was king of the Nabataeans from 40 to 70 AD. He was probably the eldest son and successor of Aretas IV and his wife Šagīlat.

Malichus is hardly mentioned in literary sources, so that little is known about his rule. Some coins and inscriptions found can be assigned to him.

If Malichus, as suspected, was the eldest son of Aretas IV, then he was at least 53 years old when he took office and thus reached an unusually old age of over 80 years. He probably had several wives, one of whom, named Šagīlat, was probably also his sister. It is believed that his reign coincided with a decline in the power and influence of the Nabatean Empire. Due to new alternative trade routes, the income from the trade routes controlled by the empire decreased; in addition, Malichus lost control of Damascus . Three daughters (Ša'ūdat, Gāmilat, Hāgiru) and one son ( Rabbel II ) are attested for Malichus . After his death in 70 AD, his wife Šagīlat took over the government as regent for their underage son for a few years. He was then the last ruler of the Nabateans, and when he died in 106 AD, the Nabatean Empire became a Roman province.

The Roman-Jewish historian Flavius ​​Josephus reports that Malichus sent a cavalry unit of 1,000 horsemen and an infantry unit of 5,000 foot soldiers to support Vespasian and Titus in the great Jewish war in AD 67 .

swell

• Malichus' inscription (main temple Qasr al-Bint, Petra )
• Josephus: Jewish War

literature

• Christoph Burchard : Malchos 3rd In: The Little Pauly (KlP). Volume 3, Stuttgart 1969, Col. 927 f.

Remarks

1. ↑ ^{a b c d} Jane Taylor: Petra And the Lost Kingdom of the Nabataeans . IB Tauris 2001, ISBN 1860645089 , p. 73 ( excerpt (Google) ).
2. ↑ Maria Giulia Amadasi, Eugenia Equini Schneider: Petra . University of Chicago Press 2002, ISBN 0226311252 , pp. 40, 94, 166, 168, 170 ( excerpt (Google) ).
3. ↑ Flavius ​​Josephus , Jüdischer Krieg 3, 68.