Queens of the Ancient World V

Zenobia, Queen of the East

IN THE THIRD CENTURY AD, Zenobia of Palmyra was the famed Queen of the East. According to the author of Historia Augusta, she had long black hair and warm brown skin, piercing dark eyes and a lyrical, strong voice. Known for her boldness, determination, and fairness as a leader, she was just in her twenties when she built and ruled an empire that covered most of what is now the Middle East.

Zenobia was born around 240 AD at Palmyra, a sparkling, palm-tree-filled paradise deep in the desert of Syria (now the ruins of Tadmor, about 150 miles northeast of Damascus). Her father was a tribal ruler who had enticed her mother from Egypt to this prosperous and cosmopolitan trading outpost.

Zenobia’s full given name was Iulia Aurelia Zenobia. “Iulia” was a popular girl’s name in Rome, which, even though it was far away, ruled the Syrian desert. “Aurelia” meant that her family were Roman citizens, an important honor. “Zenobia” came from her family’s Aramaic tribe. Historians know that by the age of eighteen, she had already married the governor of Palmyra, a man named Odainat (known in Latin as Septimius Odaenathus). Then she changed her name to Septimia Zenobia, to match his.

As wife to the land’s governor, Zenobia was well educated, and her court was filled with philosophers and poets. Many an evening was spent lingering over sumptuous meals, talking about Homer and Plato, making speeches, and laughing at riddles and wit. The peace was disturbed in 260, however, when the Persian king, Shapur, tried to take Syria from the Romans. As allies of Rome, the Palmyrans guarded the frontier where the Roman Empire met the Persian, so Odainat and Zenobia prepared for combat.

The emperor of Rome, Valerian, faced rebellion everywhere—to the west, north, and now to the east. His troops were dispirited, but nonetheless he marched them to battle. The Persians had superior strength and fighting skills, so they easily routed the weary Roman soldiers. Valerian and Shapur agreed to meet at the city of Edessa and negotiate terms. When Valerian showed up, the Persians ambushed him and took him into captivity.

That’s when two Roman messengers urged their horses across the desert sand to Palmyra, bringing the terrible news of Valerian’s capture. Odainat and Zenobia were ready. Side by side, the couple donned armor, saddled their horses, and led the army of Palmyra against the Persians, in search of Valerian.

While Odainat was a courageous and daring warrior, ancient writers tell us Zenobia was even more so, and praised her battle skills, including her exceptional way with the troops. She rallied them, kept them inspired, and at times even handed off her horse to march for miles with the foot soldiers. Unfortunately, the Persians killed Valerian before Odainat and Zenobia could save him, but the couple’s brave leadership earned them the complete respect of the Palmyran army and people.

Was it odd for these troops to see a woman in front, her long black hair streaming out from beneath her helmet? The ancient cultures of Greece and Rome often portrayed the deity of war as a woman, and female Victory statues graced nearly every city. In fact, the Palmyran soldiers followed Zenobia to battle again and again in the following years.

In 267 AD, seven years after their first battle together, Zenobia’s husband Odainat was assassinated. The royal line fell to Zenobia’s toddler son, Vaballathus, who was clearly too young to rule. Zenobia, then 27 years old, became queen in his stead. She dreamed of an empire of Palmyra and prepared the troops for a battle of independence.

The Romans were busy in Europe defending themselves from the Goths, Zenobia knew, so she attacked the Roman province of Egypt. The Egyptians, too, were distracted, off battling pirates in the Mediterranean Sea. She conquered them, and then went to conquer cities in Arabia, Palestine, and Syria. By 269, she declared her empire’s independence from Rome and minted new coins with her image and the word “REGINA”—Queen.

Historians tell us that Zenobia ruled tolerantly as Queen of the East, drawing on the Palmyran traditions of hospitality and openness to treat all people with fairness, including the pagans, Jews, and Christians of her empire. She opened new trade routes and met with Christian bishops and other leaders of the cities she conquered.

As Zenobia grew her Palmyran empire, armies threatened the larger Roman Empire on all sides. The new Roman emperor, Aurelian, was battling the Goth and Visigoth tribes in northern Europe. When his messengers arrived with news of Queen Zenobia’s expanding kingdom, Aurelian set off for Egypt, determined to win the territory back, and then to Turkey (which in ancient times was called Asia Minor). After these small victories, he prepared to attack Antioch, a city in northern Syria that Zenobia now ruled.

Zenobia had never faced the vast legions of the mighty Roman army. She could have given up and returned to the Roman fold, but decided instead to take a last stand and save the heart of her hard-earned empire. She assembled the troops along one side of the northflowing Orontes River. Her soldiers fought all day, Zenobia along with them. Then, as the sun dipped toward the western horizon, the tired soldiers, bleary and water-starved after a long day, fell into a trap, in which the Romans massacred them from all sides.

Zenobia managed to escape with seventy thousand soldiers and retreated to the city of Emesa. They found a hill and, under cover of night, climbed to the top and lay in wait, ready to rain down arrows on the Roman soldiers. The Romans, though, pulled out their colorful shields, held high overhead, each shield meeting the next to cover the men and protect them from the Palmyrans’ arrows and darts. In this formation, the Romans pushed forward up the hill. When they reached the Palmyran marksmen, they moved their shields forward and down, and attacked.

Thousands of troops died on the battlefield. Zenobia herself barely escaped and even her trusted horse fell in the battle. She commandeered a camel and turned the slow beast toward the sandy hinterlands of the Syrian desert, with hopes that the plodding animal could take her one hundred miles east to Persia, where she would be safe from Rome.

“I promise you life if you surrender,” Aurelian wrote to her. Zenobia had other plans, but it was Aurelian’s turn for victory. He lay siege to her beloved Palmyra and sent his best soldiers on horseback to capture the fallen paradise’s fugitive queen. As she neared the Euphrates River, so close to freedom, the emperor’s horsemen reached Zenobia and captured her.

The remainder of Zenobia’s life is shrouded in myth. Where one ancient historian reports that she died in captivity, another writes that Aurelian took her to Rome. It is said that in 274, Zenobia was wrapped in chains of gold and made to walk down Rome’s main boulevard as Aurelian celebrated his triumph over the many tribes he had battled. Still another tale suggests that some time later, Zenobia was released. In her absence, Palmyra had rebelled against Rome once more and had been crushed. Some tales hold that with no home to return to, Zenobia lived the rest of her life not far from Rome, in Tivoli.