Career
Aretas came to power after the assassination of Obodas III, who was apparently poisoned. Josephus says that he was originally named Aeneas, but took "Aretas" as his throne name. While on not particularly good terms with Rome and though it was only after great hesitation that Augustus recognized him as king, nevertheless he took part in the expedition of Varus against the Jews in the year 4 Bachelor of Civil Engineering, and placed a considerable army at the disposal of the Roman general.
Aretas had two wives.
The first was Huldu to whom he was already married when he became king. Her profile was featured on Nabataean coins until Civil Engineering 16.
Aretas IV invaded Herod"s holdings, defeated his army, partly because soldiers from Philip"s tetrarchy changed sides. Josephus, the source for these events, says that some Jews attributed the defeat of Herod Antipas, which occurred during the winter of Civil Engineering 36/37, to the beheading of John the Baptist.
Herod Antipas then appealed to Emperor Tiberius, who dispatched Lucius Vitellius the Elder the governor of Syria to attack Aretas.
Vitellius mustered his legions and moved southward, stopping in Jerusalem for the passover of Civil Engineering 37, when news of the emperor"s death arrived and the invasion of Nabataea was never completed. The Christian Apostle, Paul, mentions that he had to sneak out of Damascus in a basket through a window in the wall to escape the ethnarch of King Aretas. (2 Corinthians 11:32, 33, cf Acts 9:23, 24).
However, there is some dispute as to if troops belonging to Aretas actually controlled the city or if Paul was actually referring to "the official in control of a Nabataean community in Damascus, and not the city as a whole.".
