Arabia Petraea, also known as Rome's Arabian Province, was established in the 2nd century as a frontier province of the Roman Empire. It encompassed the former Nabataean Kingdom, covering the southern Levant, the Sinai Peninsula, and northwestern Arabian Peninsula, with Petra as its capital. Its borders were defined by Syria to the north, Judaea (merged with Syria from 135 CE) and Egypt to the west, and the rest of Arabia, known as Arabia Deserta and Arabia Felix, to the south and east.

Emperor Trajan annexed the territory, and unlike other eastern provinces like Armenia, Mesopotamia, and Assyria, Arabia Petraea remained part of the Roman Empire well beyond Trajan's rule. The province's desert border, the Limes Arabicus, was significant for its location adjacent to the Parthian hinterland. Arabia Petraea produced Emperor Philippus around 204 CE.

As a frontier province, it included areas populated by Arabic tribes. While it faced attacks and challenges from the Parthians and Palmyrenes, Arabia Petraea did not experience the constant incursions seen in other Roman frontier areas like Germany and North Africa. Furthermore, it did not have the same level of entrenched Hellenized cultural presence that characterized other eastern provinces of the Roman Empire.