An Open Access Online Journal on Arabian Epigraphy.
This contribution examines the function and characteristics of the official known as ʾsrtgʾ (strategos) in the Nabataean inscriptions and ancient literary sources. It provides an updated list of the texts which mention a strategos as well as a list of the strategoi mentioned in them, as well as a general commentary on their role, distribution, career, prestige, etc. It appears that the strategoi are very much related to the Nabataean provincial system, the places where a strategos is known to have had an authority being central places in the Nabataean kingdom.
Administration Military titles Nabataean inscriptions Province of Arabia
This article publishes eighteen inscriptions: seventeen in the Nabataean script and one in the pre-Islamic Arabic script, all from the area of al-Jawf, ancient Dūmat al-Jandal, in north-west Arabia. It includes the edition of the texts as well as a discussion of their significance. The pre-Islamic Arabic text, DaJ144PAr1, is dated to the mid-sixth century ad. It is important because it is the first text firmly dated to the sixth century ad from north-west Arabia. The Nabataean texts are interesting because they are dated to the beginning of the second century ad and they mention both cavalrymen (Nabataean pršyʾ) and a centurion (Nabataean qnṭrywnʾ).
Nabataean inscriptions Old Arabic Roman army Dumah Saudi Arabia