Looking for Arabia Nova

Abstract

The administrative structure of the Roman Empire is still not fully understood. Some questions remain unanswered due to the unique nature of historical sources. A number of notions are mentioned only once or in a very unclear context. For example, the notion of “New Arabia” (ἡ νέα (ἐπαρχεία) Ἀραβία) is raised in a several papyri of the 2nd and 4th century AD. The explanation for the earlier documents is clear: the newly created province of Arabia is mentioned there. A letter P. Oxy 50. 3574 (beginning of the 4th century AD) is a much more complicated example of such denomination. Scholars believe that it refers to a province although Roman sources do not mention any province called “Arabia”, except for the one created in 106 AD under Trajan. In fact, “New Arabia” in P. Oxy 50. 3574 does not allude to a newly created province (ἐπαρχία) around Eleutheropolis instead of the former nomos Arabia in Egypt or in Idumaea, as is assumed in contemporary studies. “New Arabia” in this document most likely refers to τοπαρχία (“district”, normally, a part of a nomos). The borders of this τοπαρχία had changed several times, and it moved from Lower to Upper Egypt. The enigmatic notion of “ἀπὸ ὁρίων Ἐλευθεροπόλεως τῆς Νέας Ἀραβείας” maybe interpreted that the “New Arabia” did not refer to the city of Eleutheropolis but rather to its borders: “…from the Eleutheropolis — the border of New Arabia”. Whether Eleutheropolis lay inside or outside this border, remains an open question. “New Arabia” cannot be connected with information of Laterculus Veronensis or Tabula Peutingeriana either.