 All of these changes would have allowed Nabataeans to control the frankincense trade from Dedan to Gaza.The first historical reference to the Nabataeans is by Greek historian Diodorus Siculus who lived around 30 BC.Diodorus refers accounts made 300 years earlier by Hieronymus of Cardia, one of Alexander the Great's generals, who had a first-hand encounter with the Nabataeans.