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No. 162

Zenobia

Person People
Inscription in Greek and Aramaic in honour of Julius Aurelius Zenobius, the father of Queen Zenobia, at Palmyra.
MyOlmec at English Wikipedia, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
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Where
Palmyra
Culture
Palmyra
Lived
240-after 274 CE
Why they matter
A queen who broke a third of the Roman East away from Rome.
Fate
Paraded in Rome as a captive; her fate after that is uncertain.
Limestone portrait of a leading Palmyrene, c. 230-250 AD, Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek, Copenhagen. An oak wreath with a small bust at its centre crows this powerful statue head. The unfinished back shows that the statue stood
Carole Raddato, Public domain
Lot 840. Aurelian, with Vabalathus. AD 270-275. AV Light Aureus (17mm, 2.09 g, 6h). Antioch mint. Struck November AD 270-March AD 272. IMP C AVRELIANVS AVG, laureate and cuirassed bust right / VABALATHVS V C R IM D R, la
CNG, CC BY-SA 2.5
Regions under the authority of Odaenathus of Palmyra. The lands extended from the Black Sea to Palestine. Dignas, Beate; Winter, Engelbert (2007). Rome and Persia in Late Antiquity: Neighbours and Rivals. Cambridge Unive
Attar-Aram syria, CC BY-SA 4.0
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Background

Septimia Zenobia (Palmyrene Aramaic: π‘‘π‘Άπ‘¦π‘‘π‘©β€Ž, romanized: Bat-Zabbai; c. 240 – c. 274) was a third-century queen of the Palmyrene Empire in Syria. Many legends surround her ancestry; she was probably not a commoner. She married Odaenathus, who became king of the city of Palmyra in 260, elevating it to supreme power in the Near East by defeating the Sasanian Empire of Persia and stabilizing the Roman East. After Odaenathus' assassination in 267, Zenobia became the regent of her son Vaballathus and held de facto power throughout his reign (267 to 272).

In 270, Zenobia launched an invasion that brought most of the Roman East under her sway and culminated with the annexation of Egypt. By mid-271 her realm extended from Ancyra, central Anatolia, to Upper Egypt, although she remained nominally subordinate to Rome. However, in reaction to the campaign of the Roman emperor Aurelian in 272, Zenobia declared her son emperor and assumed the title of empress, thus declaring Palmyra's independence from Rome. The Romans were victorious after heavy fighting; the empress was besieged in her capital and captured in late 272 by Aurelian, who exiled her to Rome, where she spent the remainder of her life.

Zenobia was a cultured monarch and fostered an intellectual environment in her court, which was open to scholars and philosophers. She was tolerant toward her subjects and protected religious minorities. The empress maintained a stable administration, which governed a multicultural, multiethnic empire. Zenobia died after 274, and many tales have been recorded about her fate. Her rise and fall have inspired historians, artists and novelists, and she is a patriotic symbol in Syria.

Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

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