Palmyra of Odaenathus and Zenobia

Palmyra, an oasis city of the Syrian desert grown rich on the caravan trade between the Euphrates and the Mediterranean, lay within the Roman Empire. Odaenathus, of a leading Palmyrene family of Arab and Aramaean descent, was its lord and by 258 a Roman senator of consular rank. In 260 he attacked Shapur’s army as it withdrew from Syria, in 261 he crushed the usurpers who had risen in the East, and in 262 he recovered the towns of northern Mesopotamia and advanced to the walls of Ctesiphon; later he campaigned against Persia again. He called himself king of kings, crowned his son Herodianus as co-ruler and governed the East nominally on behalf of Gallienus.

In 267 Odaenathus and Herodianus were murdered; who was behind the killing is uncertain. His widow Zenobia ruled for their young son Vaballathus, and her court drew Greek men of letters such as Cassius Longinus. In 270 her general Zabdas took Bostra, the capital of the province of Arabia, and invaded Egypt, and in 271 the Palmyrenes reached Ancyra in Asia Minor. As Aurelian marched east, Vaballathus and Zenobia took the imperial titles (271–272), but in 272 Aurelian defeated their army at Immae and at Emesa, besieged Palmyra and captured the queen as she fled towards the Euphrates. When the city rose again in 273, he returned and sacked it. Zenobia was taken to Rome; the accounts of her later life differ. Palmyra never regained its former wealth.