Rome's Relations with the Arab/Indigenous People in the First-Third Centuries

In the present paper I intend to discuss some aspects of the impact of the Roman presence on the area that, before 106/107, was part of the Nabataean kingdom. The territory was a complex world inhabitated by people who used different written languages. From a military point of view the Romans experienced native resistance only in the first decades immediately following the annexation of the Nabataean kingdom. Nonetheless, it is worth stressing that it remains difficult to be precise about the range and character of such opposition. During the last decades of the second century the Romans expanded their interests in the area, and were finally able to create a society where integration with the native people produced some positive results. On the other hand it appears that the pace of the integration process was quite a slow one. The causes for this delay must be properly interpreted.