Biography: Zenobia.

Born: 240 CE.

Died: 285 CE.

Zenobia (240-285 CE)

Zenobia is one of the most fascinating female leaders of antiquity. An intelligent and beautiful woman, she ruled the Syrian city of Palmyra before forging an empire that stood between Rome and Persia during the third century CE. Indeed, her rulership earned her comparisons with Cleopatra of Egypt and Dido of Carthage in the Historia Augusta. Like those two queens, she was defeated by Rome in the end but became immortalised by artists and writers in the centuries following her death.

Historical Background

Zenobia was born in 240 CE in Palmyra, Syria, to Antiochus and an unknown mother. During her formative years, Zenobia was taught Aramaic, philosophy, horseback riding, and hunting. In 258 CE, she married the ruler of Palmyra, Odaenathus, and bore him a son, Vaballathus, in 259 CE. However, when Odaenathus was assassinated in 267 CE, Zenobia became queen of Palmyra and began to expand Palmyra’s influence through military conquest. By 270 CE, she controlled Syria, Palestine, Anatolia, and Egypt, where “The Egyptian people embraced Zenobia as the rightful heir to Cleopatra’s greatness” (Asadi, 2014, p.70). However, her declaration as Empress of the East in 272 CE aroused the wrath of the Roman emperor Aurelian, who defeated Palmyrene forces in the battles of Immae and Emesa. While besieging Palmyra, Aurelian captured Zenobia while she attempted to escape east to the Sassanid Empire. In 274 CE, Zenobia was taken to Rome and paraded in Aurelian’s triumph before being allowed to retire to a villa at Tivoli and marry a Roman senator. She died in 285 CE at the age of 45.

Historical Influences

Zenobia was influenced by Cleopatra and the Crisis of the Third Century. According to the Historia Augusta, she claimed descent from Cleopatra through her ancestor’s great-granddaughter, Drusilla, who married into the Royal House of Emesa in 54 CE. Indeed, when Zenobia invaded Egypt in 270 CE, she claimed the country as her ancestral homeland and commissioned a ten-volume history of Cleopatra in honour of her ancestor. The Historia Augusta also claims that Zenobia established the Palmyrene Empire to act as a partner with Rome against Persia. A letter supposedly written by Aurelian claims that Zenobia “kept guard over the eastern frontier of the empire, [so he] might the more safely complete what he had taken in hand” (HA. Tyr. Trig. 30.11). During the third century CE, the Roman Empire saw a succession of 19 emperors and political instability that almost led to its collapse. In many ways, this period was similar to the first century BCE, when Cleopatra sought to maintain Egypt’s independence and Mark Antony envisioned a loose Roman hegemony over the east and not full annexation. It appears that Zenobia sought to revive her ancestor’s ideal of a partnership between East and West.

Key Battle

Zenobia’s signature battle was the Battle of Emesa (272 CE). The battle began with the Palmyrene cavalry charging the Roman cavalry, who incurred heavy casualties. At the same time, the Palmyrene infantry engaged the Roman legionaries under Aurelian in combat, with Zenobia animating her own army by her presence. When it appeared that the Palmyrene cavalry was gaining the upper hand in the battle, Aurelian sent his Palestinian auxiliaries to assist the Roman cavalry, attacking the Palmyrene cataphracts with their clubs and staves. With their cavalry routed, the Palmyrene infantry retreated into Emesa while Zenobia and her generals fled east to Palmyra.

Emesa (272 CE)

Historical Significance

Much of Zenobia’s fame rests on her descent from Cleopatra, the last queen of Egypt and Mark Antony’s doomed lover. However, as Nigel Rodgers points out, “she seems to have been a better military and diplomatic leader, winning over many Arab chieftains and princes to her cause” (Rodgers, 2007, p.225). Indeed, many ancient sources recount how she was a competent governor of her realm and handled her finances wisely. In addition, while there is no surviving evidence that she was a priestess, Zenobia frequently offered votives and prayers to a god she called “the one whose name is blessed forever” (Andrade, 2018, p.86). The Palmyrene religion revered the sun as one of its chief deities, and when Aurelian returned to Rome in 274 CE, he reinstated the cult of Sol Invictus (the Unconquered Sun), hoping it would help unify the Roman Empire. While Zenobia’s children would marry into the Roman nobility, the city of Palmyra never recovered its old glory, and further damage was inflicted on its ruins during the Syrian Civil War (2011-2024).

Bibliography

Andrade, Nathanael J. Zenobia: Shooting Star of Palmyra. New York, Oxford University Press, 2018.

Asadi, Aaron. All About History Book of Kings & Queens. London, Imagine Publishing, 2014.

El-Daly, Okasha. Egyptology: The Missing Millennium, Ancient Egypt in Medieval Arabic Writings. London, UCL Press, 2005.

Pollio, Trebellius. Historia Augusta: Lives of the Thirty Pretenders. Translated by David Magie. Cambridge, Loeb Classical Library, 1932.

Rodgers, Nigel. The History and Conquests of Ancient Rome. London, Hermes House, 2007.

Schmalz, Herbert. “Queen Zenobia’s Last Look upon Palmyra.” Wikimedia Commons. Last revised May 2, 2012. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Herbert_Schmalz-Zenobia.jpg