Zenobia
Encyclopedia : Z : ZE : ZEN : Zenobia
- For the genus of plants named after Zenobia, see Zenobia (plant), for the musical band, see Zenobia (musical band), for the 1939 film, see Zenobia (film), for the wife of Rhadamistus, see Rhadamistus
Zenobia (or Xenobia) is the name commonly used for the daughter of (= "bat" or "bath") Zabaai ben Selim, an Arab chieftain. The widow of Septimius Odenathus, she reigned as Queen of Palmyra and the Palmyrene Empire from 267 to 272 as regent for her infant son Vaballathus. Something of a militant, she embarked on a campaign of conquests that eventually saw her as the ruler of much of Syria and Asia Minor. Her professed goal was to defend the Eastern portion of the Empire from the Sassanid Empire, supposedly for the good of Rome, but really for her own power. By playing off Persia to the east against Rome to the west, she hoped to dominate them both.
In 269, she crushed an Egyptian who challenged Roman rule and proclaimed herself Queen of Egypt. She claimed to be descended from Cleopatra VII of Egypt and Mark Antony (and many modern historians believe she was), as well as Dido (the supposed founding queen of Carthage, according to the Aeneid) and declared herself the political heiress of both. She was also descended from Semiramis.
The Roman emperor Aurelian, with his policy of re-uniting the Roman Empire and acutely aware of the danger Zenobia posed, led a military campaign that resulted in the conquest of her kingdom in 272. Zenobia and her son were captured as they fled to seek aid from Persia. Aurelian brought her to Rome and paraded her in his triumph in 274, bound in gold chains. Aurelian, impressed by her beauty and dignity, later freed her, and granted her a villa in Tibur (now Tivoli, Italy), where she spent the rest of her life as a philosopher and socialite. Some historians (ancient and modern) believe she married a Roman senator and that they had children, so the line continued at least into the 4th century.
References
Ancient sources
The "Tyranni Triginta", a book of the Augustan History (written in the 4th century) contains a half-mockumentary account of Zenobia's life and triumph.Modern fiction
- Beloved, by Bertrice Small, is a fictitious retelling (historical novel) of Zenobia's life. ISBN 0345327853
- Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Blithedale Romance contains a character named Zenobia.
- Robert E. Howard's only Conan novel, The Hour of the Dragon, concludes itself, as well as the series, with the eponymous character making a slave-girl named Zenobia, who had formerly saved his life and freed him from imprisonment, his first and only queen. Though the name has obvious reference to the historical Zenobia, it is likely that Howard was exposed to the name through reading Hawthorne's The Blithedale Romance, as there are other names common to the two books.
- The Chronicle of Zenobia: the Rebel Queen, by Judith Weingarten (Pegasus 2006). Site: [Zenobia.tv]
- "Lunar: Silver Star Story" video game for Playstation, a sorceress of the Vile Tribe.
External links
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