After Diodorus, Josephus († ca. A.D. 95) is our chief source of information about the Nabataeans, but Josephus was interested in them only as they crossed wires with the Hebrews.

Praetorius says, “It is very good, and indeed almost essential, to have this same General Bass played in addition by some bass instrument, such as a bassoon, a dolcian, or a trombone, or best of all on a violone.”

Rather than fulfilling its original function as an integral part of an emotional relationship, sex is for them little more than a cheap thrill, something that men do to women and for which women should be grateful.

For it must be confessed that coins current, like feudal tyrants, may sometimes reach the point of unbearability; men can put up with their exacting and impracticable nature no longer.