Idumaea
（Ἰδουμαία). The Greek form of the Scriptural name Edom. In the Old Testament, Edom is the district of Mount Seir, that is, the mountainous region extending from the Dead Sea to the eastern head of the Red Sea. The decline of the kingdom of Iudaea enabled the Edomites to extend their power over the southern part of Iudaea as far as Hebron, while their original territory was taken possession of by the Nabathaean Arabs. Thus the Idumaea of the later Jewish and of the Roman history is the southern part of Iudaea, and a small portion of the north of Arabia Petraea, extending from the Mediterranean to the west side of Mount Seir. Antipater, the father of Herod the Great, was an Idumaean. The Roman writers of the Augustan and of later ages use Idumaea and Iudaea as equivalent terms. Both the old Edomites and the later Idumaeans were a commercial people, and carried on a great part of the traffic between the East and the shores of the Mediterranean.