What caused the decline of the Nabataean civilization?
The discovery of alternate trade routes to the north and south of Nabataean cities meant that they no longer had a monopoly on the huge caravans of luxury goods on their way to Europe and northern Africa. The Romans annexed the region in A.D. 106 without a struggle, and by the earthquake of A.D. 363, which destroyed most of the city of Petra, the Nabataeans had virtually ceased to be a political or economic entity. Most of the remainder of Petra was leveled during a series of earthquakes in the sixth century.
