Petra
- I A city in Arabia Petraea, now the ruins of Wadi Musa, Plin. 6, 28, 32, § 144; Vulg. Jer. 48, 28.—Hence,
- B Pē̆traeus, a, um, adj., Petrean: balanus, Plin. 12, 21, 46, § 102: hypericon, id. 12, 25, 54, § 119.—
- II A city in Pieria, Liv. 29, 26.—
- III A city in Thrace, Liv. 40, 22. —
- IV A city in Umbria, called Petra Pertusa, now Il Furlo, Aur. Vict. Epist. in Vespas. 17.—
- V A hill near Dyrrachium, Caes. B. C. 3, 42.
- a Roman proper name, Tac. A. 11, 4.
PETRA (Πέτρα), rock,t he name of several towns. I. In Europe.
1.PETRA PERTUSA, in Umbria. [INTERCISA]
2.(Πέτρα: Eth. Πετρῖνος, Petrinus: Petralia), a city of Sicily, mentioned both by Pliny and Ptolemy among the inland towns of the island. Cicero also notices the Petrini among the communities that suffered from the exactions of Verres (Cic. Ver. 3.3. 9; Plin. Nat. 3.8. s. 14; Ptol. 3.4.14); and their name is mentioned at an earlier period by Diodorus as submitting to the Romans during the First Punic War. (Diod. 23.18; Exc. H. p. 505.) The name is written Petraea by Silius Italicus (Sil. Ital. 14.248), and the Petrinae of the Antonine Itinerary is in all probability the same place. (Itin. Ant. p. 96.) Though so often mentioned by ancient authors, they afford very little clue to its position; but it is probable that the name is retained by the modern Petralia, a small town about 8 miles W. of Gangi, supposed to represent the ancient Engyum. [ENGYUM.] Ptolemy indeed places these two towns near one another, though he erroneously transfers them both to the neighbourhood of Syracuse, which is wholly at variance with the mention of Petra in Diodorus among the towns subject to the Carthaginians as late as B.C. 254. (Cluver. Sicil. p. 367.) [E.H.B]
3.A fortress of Macedonia, among the mountains beyond Libethra, the possession of which was disputed by the Thessalian Perrhaebi and the Macedonian kings. (Liv. 39.26, 44.32.) It commanded a pass which led to Pythium in Thessaly, by the back of Olympus. By this road L. Aemilius Paullus was enabled to throw a detachment on the rear of the Macedonian army which was encamped on the Enipeus, after the forces of Perseus had been overthrown at the pass of Petra by P. Scipio Nasica, who had been sent against it with the consul's eldest son Q. Fabius Maximus. (Liv. 45.41.) Petra was situated on a great insulated rock naturally separated from the adjoining mountain at the pass which leads from Elasóna or Sérvia into the maritime plains of Macedonia. Here, which is at once the least difficult and most direct of the routes across the Olympene barrier, or the frontier between Macedonia and Thessaly, exactly on the Zygós, are the ruins of Petra. (Leake, Northern Greece, vol. iii. pp. 337,430.) [E.B.J]
4.A fortress of the Maedi, in Thrace. (Liv. 40.22.)
5.A town in Illyricum, situated upon a hill upon the coast, which had only a moderately good harbour. (Caes. B.C. 3.42.)
6.A place in the Corinthia. [Vol. 1. 685a.]
7.A place in the immediate neighbourhood of Elis. [Vol. 1. 821a.]
PETRA, II. In Asia.
1.(Πέτρα,Ptol. 5.17.5, 8.20.19; Πέτρα or Πέτραι, Suid. s. v. Γενέθλιος; the SELA of the Old Testament, 2 Kings, 14.7; Isaiah, 16.1: respecting its various names see Robinson, Biblical Researches, vol. ii. Notes and Ill. p. 653), the chief town of Arabia Petraea, once the capital of the Idumaeans and subsequently of the Nabataei, now, Wady Musa. [NABATAEI]
Petra was situated in the eastern part of Arabia Petraea, in the district called under the Christian emperors of Rome Palaestina Tertia (Vet. Rom. Itin. p. 721, Wessel.; Malala, Chronogr. 16. p. 400, ed. Bonn). According to the division of tile ancient geographers, it lay in the northern district, Gebalene; whilst the modern ones place it in the southern portion, Esh-Sherah, the Seir, or mountain-land, of the Old Testament (Genesis, 36.8). It was seated between the Dead Sea and the Elanitic gulf; being, according to Diodorus Siculus (19.98), 300 stadia S. of the former, whilst the Tab. Peut. places it 98 Roman miles N. of the latter. Its site is a wilderness overtopped by Mount Hor, and diversified by cliffs, ravines, plains, and Wadys, or watered valleys, for the most part but ill cultivated. Strabo (16. p. 779) describes it as seated in a plain surrounded with rocks, hemmed in with barren and streamless deserts, though the plain itself is well watered. Pliny's description (6.32), which states the extent of the plain at rather less than 2 miles, agrees very nearly with that of Strabo, and both are confirmed by the reports of modern travellers. It is an area in the bosom of a mountain, swelling into mounds, and intersected with gullies.( Irby and Mangles, ch. viii.) It must not, however, be understood to be completely hemmed in with rocks. Towards the N. and S. the view is open; and from the eastern part of the valley the summit of Mount Hor is seen over the western cliffs. (Robinson, 2. p. 528.) According to Pliny (l. c.) Petra was a place of great resort for travellers.
Petra was subdued by A. Cornelius Palma, a lieutenant of Trajan's (Dio Cass.), and remained under the Roman dominion a considerable time, as we hear of the province of Arabia being enlarged by Septimius Severus A.D. 195 (id. 75.1, 2; Eutrop. 8.18). It must have been during this period that those temples and mausoleums were made, the remains of which still arrest the attention of the traveller; for though the predominant style of the architecture is Egyptian, it is mixed with florid and over-loaded Roman-Greek specimens, which clearly indicate their origin. (Robinson, 2. p. 532.)
The valley of Wady Musa, which leads to the town, is about 150 feet broad at its entrance, and is encircled with cliffs of red sandstone, which gradually increase from a height of 40 or 50 feet to 200 or 250 feet. Their height has been greatly exaggerated, having been estimated by some travellers at 700 and even 1000 feet (Irby and Mangles, ch. viii.; Stephens, 2. p. 70; see Robinson, 2. p. 517 and note). The valley gradually contracts, till at one spot it becomes only about 12 feet broad, and is so overlapped by the cliffs that the light of day is almost excluded. The ravine or Sik of Wady Musa extends, with many windings, for a good English mile. It forms the principal, and was anciently the only avenue to Petra, the entrance being broken through the wall. (Diod. Sic. 2.48, 19.97; Robinson, 2. p. 516; Laborde, p. 55.) This valley contains a wonderful necropolis hewn in the rocks. The tombs, which adjoin or surmount one another, exhibit now a front with six Ionic columns, now with four slender pyramids, and by their mixture of Greek, Roman, and Oriental architecture remind the spectator of the remains which are found in the valley of Jehoshaphat and in other parts of Palestine. The further side of the ravine is spanned by a bold arch, perhaps a triumphal one, with finely-sculptured niches evidently intended for statues. This, like the other remains of this extraordinary spot, is ascribed by the natives either to the Pharaohs or to the Jins or evil genii. Along the bottom of the valley, in which it almost vanishes, winds the stream mentioned by Strabo and Pliny, the small but charming Wady Musa. In ancient times its bed seems to have been paved, as many traces still show. Its stream was spanned by frequent bridges, its sides strengthened with stone walls or quays, and numerous small canals derived from it supplied the inhabitants with water. But now its banks are overspread with hyacinths, oleanders, and other flowers and shrubs, and overshadowed by lofty trees.
Opposite to where the Sik terminates, in a second ravine-like but broader valley, another monument, the finest one at Petra, and perhaps in all Syria, strikes the eye of the traveller. This is the Khuzneh, --well preserved, considering its age and site, and still exhibiting its delicate chiselled work and all the freshness and beauty of its colouring. It has two rows of six columns over one another, with statues between, with capitals and sculptured pediments, the upper one of which is divided by a little round temple crowned with an urn. The Arabs imagine that the urn contains a treasure,-- El Khuzneh, whence the name,--which they ascribe to Pharaoh (Robinson, 2. p. 519). The interior does not correspond with the magnificence of the façade, being a plain lofty hall, with a chamber adjoining each of its three sides. It was either a mausoleum, or, more probably, a temple.
From this spot the cliffs on both sides the Wady are pierced with numerous excavations, the chambers of which are usually small, though the façades are occasionally of some size and magnificence; all, however, so various that scarce two are exactly alike. After a gentle curve the Wady expands, and here on its left side lies the theatre, entirely hewn out of the rock. Its diameter at the bottom is 120 feet (Irby and Mangles, p. 428), and it has thirty-three, or, according to another account, thirty-eight, rows of seats, capable of accommodating at least 3000 spectators. Strangely enough, it is entirely surrounded with tombs. One of these is inscribed with the name of Q. Praefectus Florentinus (Laborde, p. 59), probably the governor of Arabia Petraea under Hadrian or Antoninus Pius. Another has a Greek inscription, not yet deciphered. A striking effect is produced by the bright and lively tints of the variegated stone, out of which springs the wild fig and tamarisk, while creeping plants overspread the walls, and thorns and brambles cover the pedestals and cornices (Isaiah, 34.13). Travellers are agreed that these excavations were mostly tombs, though some think they may originally have served as dwellings. A few were, doubtless, temples for the worship of Baal, but subsequently converted into Christian churches.
Proceeding down the stream, at about 150 paces from the theatre, the cliffs begin to expand, and soon vanish altogether, to give place to a small plain, about a mile square, surrounded with gentle eminences. The brook, which now turns to the W., traverses the middle of this plain till it reaches a ledge of sandstone cliffs, at a distance of rather more than a mile. This was the site of Petra, and is still covered with heaps of hewn stones, traces of paved streets, and foundations of houses. There are remains of several larger and smaller temples, of a bridge, of a triumphal arch of degenerate architecture, and of the walls of a great public building-- Kusr Faron, or the palace of Pharaoh.
On an eminence south of this is a single column (Zub Faron, i. e. hasta virilis Pharaonis), connected with the foundation-walls of a temple whose pillars lie scattered around in broken fragments. Laborde (p. 59) thinks that the Acropolis occupied an isolated hill on the W. At the NW. extremity of the cliffs is the Deir, or cloister, hewn in the rock. A ravine, like the Sik, with many windings, leads to it, and the approach is partly by a path 5 or 6 feet broad, with steps cut in the rock with inexpressible labour. Its façade is larger than that of the Khuzneh; but, as in that building, the interior does not answer to it, consisting of a large square chamber, with a recess resembling the niche for the altar in Greek ecclesiastical architecture, and bearing evident signs of having been converted from a heathen into a Christian temple. The destruction of Petra, so frequently prophesied in Scripture, was at length wrought by the Mahometans. From that time it remained unvisited, except by some crusading kings of Jerusalem; and perhaps by the single European traveller, Thetmar, at the beginning of the 13th century. It was discovered by Burckhardt, whose account of it still continues to be the best. (Robinson, 2. p. 527.) Laborde's work is chiefly valuable for the engravings. See also Irby and Mangles, Travels, ch. viii; Robinson, Bibl. Researches, vol. 2. p. 512, seq. [T.H.D]
2.A town in the land of the Lazi in Colchis, founded by Joannes Tzibus, a general of Justinian, in order to keep the Lazi in subjection. It was situated upon a rock near the coast, and was very strongly fortified. (Procop. B. Pers. 2.15, 17.) It was taken by Chosroes in A.D. 541, and its subsequent siege by the Romans is described by Gibbon as one of the most remarkable actions of the age. The first siege was relieved; but it was again attacked by the Romans, and was at length taken by assault after a long protracted resistance, A.D. 551. It was then destroyed by the Romans, and from that time disappears from history. Its ruins, which are now called Oudjenar, are described by Dubois. (Procop. B. Pers. 2.17, 20, 30, B. Goth. 4.11, 12; Gibbon, c. xlii. vol. 5. p. 201, ed. Smith; Dubois, Voyage autour du Caucase, vol. 3. p. 86, seq.)
3.A very strong fortress in Sogdiana, held by Arimazes when Alexander attacked it. (Curt. 7.11; comp. Arrian, 4.19; Strab. 11. p. 517.) It is probably the modern Kohiten, near the pass of Kolugha or Derbend. [See Dict. of Biogr. Vol. 1. p. 286.]
(ἡ Πέτρα). The name of several cities built on rocks, or in rocky places, of which the most celebrated was in Arabia Petraea, the capital, first of the Idumaeans, and afterwards of the Nabathaeans. It lies in the midst of the mountains of Seir, just half way between the Dead Sea and the head of the Aelanitic Gulf of the Red Sea, in a valley or, rather, ravine, surrounded by almost inaccessible precipices, which is entered by a narrow gorge on the east, the rocky walls of which approach so closely as in some places hardly to permit two horsemen to ride abreast. On the banks of the river which runs through this ravine stood the city itself, and some fine ruins of its public buildings still remain. These ruins are chiefly of the Roman period, when Petra had become an important city as a centre of the caravan traffic of the Nabathaeans. It maintained its independence under the Romans till the time of Trajan, by whom it was taken. It was the chief city of Arabia Petraea; and under the later Empire the capital of Palaestina Tertia. The rocks about it were honeycombed with tombs.
Other cities of the name were situated in Sicily (Cic Verr. iii. 39), Elis (Pausan. vi. 24, 5), Macedonia (Livy , xlv. 41), and Illyricum (Caes. B. C. iii. 42).
Modern name of a hill of three peaks on the W side of Lake Boibe (Karla), ca. 5 km E of Gerli (now Armenion). It was an island in antiquity. It is the site of a prehistoric settlement with extensive Cyclopean walls (ca. 4 km in length), estimated to be the largest Mycenaean walled site known in Greece. There was also an archaic-Hellenistic settlement here; sherds, some building remains, etc. are to be seen. It is sometimes identified as Armenion (Strab. 11.503, 530, a city between Larissa and Pherai) and sometimes as Kerkinion, a city somewhere near the Boibe Lake, taken by the Aitolians and Athymanians under Amynander in 200 B.C. when it had a Macedonian garrison (Livy 31.41. 2f).
BIBLIOGRAPHYA. S. Arvanitopoullos, Praktika (1910) 232f; (1911) 346f; F. Stählin, Das Hellenische Thessalien (1924) 103; A. Philippson, GL I 1 (1950) 121, 274; V. Milojćić, AA (1955) 221-29PI; BCH 81 (1957) 597.
T. S. MAC KAYIn the mountains of Idumaea 300 km S of Amman, Petra was the capital of the kingdom of Nabataea and a flourishing caravan city. It was annexed by Trajan in A.D. 106 and visited by Hadrian in 130. The Moslem conquest in the 4th c. brought decline and oblivion.
The site, rediscovered in 1812, is a basin shut in by cliffs of brightly colored sandstone into which many monuments were cut. The monuments are often baroque in their variety of form and richness of decoration. The only access is by the Siq, a narrow defile 2 km long cut by the wadi Musa, whose waters were diverted by an ancient tunnel. A rock-cut necropolis at the entry to the Siq has nefesh (obelisks or stelai symbolizing the soul of the deceased) and, farther along, baetyls (aniconical representations of the divinity).
The most famous of Petra's monuments, the Khazné or treasury, rises in the middle of the Siq. Its pink sandstone facade, more than 40 m high, is exotically decorated, suggesting a Corinthian temple topped by a tholos in a courtyard with porticos. Its interior is a vast cross-shaped chamber. The monument may be a mausoleum of King Aretas IV, who died in A.D. 40.
At the exit of the Siq is a large theater cut into the rock in the 2d c. A.D. There is also a small theater, more recent in date, at a bend of the wadi Musa. A paved street, the cardo, ran along the wadi and was the town's main axis. To N and S the town rose tier on tier over fairly steep slopes. It was larger in circumference in the 1st c. B.C. than in the 2d c. A.D. First one sees the hemicycle enclosing the basin of a public fountain or nymphaeum, then the ruins which, to the S, may be markets and a large temple, and to the N a palace and a gymnasium. To the W the cardo reaches a monumental arch with three bays, which gives access to a sacred area of the 1st c. A.D. The area contains the base of a monumental altar and a square cella with stucco decoration. These are remains of the main temple, known as Qasr Firaun, consecrated to Dusares. According to Suidas, its gold-covered baetyl would have been enthroned in the axial chapel. The cliff of el-Habis, which dominates the Qasr to the W, was covered with Nabataean houses.
The E cliff has extraordinary funerary facades. To the S, at the exit of the Siq, are tiers of tombs crowned with merlons or steps. Farther to the left is the tall Doric urn tomb of the middle of the 1st c. A.D., which was turned into a cathedral in A.D. 446. Then come the Corinthian Tomb, which imitates the Khazné, and the Palace Tomb, resembling the long facade of a Parthian palace; both are the burial places of princes and princesses of the last Nabataean dynasty. The narrow and overburdened facade of the tomb of Sextus Florentinus (legate in Arabia ca. A.D. 127) stands 300 m farther N cut into a rocky spur.
There are many High Places on the neighboring plateaus, with enclosing walls, sacrificial areas, altars, bases for baetyls, triclinia cut in the rock, and basins. On the ed-Deir plateau, the main one is dedicated to the god Dushara. There is also a theater in the gorge of the wadi es-Sabrah.
BIBLIOGRAPHYL. de Laborde et Dinant, Voyage de l'Arabie pétrée (1830) I& Journey Through Arabia Petraea. . . (1836) I; R. E. Brunnow & A. v. Domaszewski, Die Provincia Arabia I (1904) MPI; G. Dalman, Petra und seine Felsheiligtümer (1908); H. Kohl, Kasr Firaun in Petra (1910) PI; W. Bachmann et al., Petra (1910) PI; A.B.W. Kennedy, Petra, Its History and Monuments (1925) MPI; A. Kammerer, Pétra et la Nabatène (1929); G. & A. Horsfield, “Sela-Petra, The Rock of Edom and Nabatene,” QDAP 7 (1938) PI; G. L. Harding, The Antiquities of Jordan (1960); J. Starcky, “Pétra et la Nabatène,” Supplément au Dictionnaire de la Bible VII (1966) MPI; P. J. Parr et al., “Découvertes récentes au sanctuaire du Qasr à Pétra,” Syria 45 (1968) I; M. Lindner et al. Petra und das Königreich der Nabatäer (1970) MPI.
J.-P. REY-COQUAIS- Hdt. 5.92
- Paus. 6.24.5
- Paus. 9.34.4