Temples et marques du pouvoir romain en Arabie romaine

The Roman Emperor Trajan annexed the Nabataean Kingdom in 106 A.D. apparently in a peaceful way. He thus created the new province of Arabia with the city of Bosra succeeding Petra as capital. The area remains prosperous: the Nabateans continue to build temples and villages. In A.D. 111, the Romans set up in the province a road connecting Damascus and Bosra to the Red Sea, passing by Petra: the Via nova traiana. We then observe the coexistence of two traditions: roman sanctuaries are established in the Decapolis cities (like in Amman, ancient Philadelphia, and in Jerash) because of the installation of imperial legionaries. In parallel, we can observe the construction or the embellishment of sanctuaries devoted to local cults (as in Khirbet edh-Dharih, Khirbet At-Tannur, Wadi Ramm and Qasr Rabbah) and a continuity of worship in Petra, which obtains the new statute of metropolis. The Nabataeans seem to have developed an authentic style by integrating into their art a Graeco-Roman imagery while preserving a Semitic worship within their temples. Are these constructions a mean of preserving autonomy and freedom of worship in the middle of a romanized province?The aim of this study is to analyze how Nabataeans reacted at the architectural level as well at the religious level to the political power dominating over their former territory.