context: Aretas I is the first known King of Nabataea, because it was found in an inscription in the Negev dating from the second century BC. [2] Around the same time, the Nabataean Arabs had formed friendships with their neighbors, the Maccabean Jews. The Nabataeans were sympathetic to the Maccabees who were oppressed by the Seleucids. [2] In the same century, the Nabataeans began to forge coins, which implied the broadest freedom they enjoyed in the economic and political fields. [2]
question: Who was the first king of the Nabataean kingdom?
answers.text: Aretas I