A coin minted by King Harith II, bearing the image of the goddess Athena on the right and the goddess of victory Nika on the left. Then Harith III (87-62 BC) received the throne, who reaped the fruits of his brother's victory over the Seleucid king. He expanded his possessions and responded to the distress of the people of Damascus who were tired of the disputes over the Seleucid throne, and they also wanted to get rid of the encroachments of the Iturian Arabs in the eastern Lebanon Mountains, so his armies entered the city of Damascus in the year 85 BC, which remained under the Nabataean kingdom for nearly 15 years.
In it, Al-Harith struck a series of Nabataean coins to commemorate his rule. It was the first to bear a Seleucid emblem, but not in Aramaic, but in Greek. It bears the name and image of the Nabataean king, as well as Al-Harith’s motto with the phrase: “The lover of the Hellenes,” that is, the Greek Philhellene, which continued to be issued until the year 70 BC, when the Nabataeans were forced to withdraw from Damascus after it fell into the hands of the Armenian king Tigranes.
A coin minted by King Harith the Third after the annexation of Damascus (reigned 84-62 BC)
Al-Harith intervened in the conflict taking place in the Hasmonean house between Hyrcanus and his brother Aristotle Paul, so he marched with his army and laid siege around Jerusalem - Jerusalem, and this coincided with the arrival of the Roman armies to Syria and their entry into Damascus and their threat to him, which forced him to withdraw. Some historical sources narrate that the Roman commander Pompeius [r] Pompeius waged war against the Nabatean Arabs and their king Al-Harith, but the historian Josephus does not mention anything of that, but rather tells the news of a Roman campaign in detail. R. led by Scaurus, and how Al-Harith agreed to pay (300) talent for peace with the Romans (Jos.Ant.Jud. 14,5,1).
Al-Harith IV (9 BC - 40 AD):
There are conflicting historical accounts about the origin of Al-Harith IV and how he came to the throne. One of the newly discovered inscriptions indicates that he belonged to the royal family. And the historian Josephus mentions in the ancient history of the Jews the anger of Emperor Augustus [R] because King Al-Harith did not ask him for permission to assume the throne, but he returned with the mediation of the historian Nicholas of Damascus, so he approved the installation of Al-Harith on his throne.
One of the most important events that took place at the end of his reign was his conflict with Herodes Antipas, the ruler of Galilee, who divorced the daughter of Al-Harith after he fell in love with his niece Herodias, so he waged war against him and defeated his army. It seems that the victory of al-Harith over Herod accompanied the return of Damascus to the rule of the Nabateans, as evidenced by the second letter of Paul the Apostle to the Corinthians, in which he says: “The governor in Damascus was under the command of Artas (Al-Harith), the king guarding the city of the Damascene, and he ordered me to be arrested, so I got out of a niche in a wall of the wall and escaped from his hands.