Monday, June 20, 2016

Zenobia's Defiance of Rome

     During the reign of Aurelian (270-275), there was an obscure rebellion in the Eastern provinces by one of history’s most well-known women: Zenobia. The rebellion and short reign of the Palmyrene Empire had little impact on history itself, but the significance and obscurity of a woman donning the purple during the Roman Empire has made a legend of Queen Zenobia.
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Zenobia

  Aurelian assumed the purple in 270AD, after Quintillus, with approval of the Senate, seized power; the Legions rejected his ascension, and Quintillus’ and his supporters were defeated in 270. After his rise to power, Aurelian turned his attentions to the Vandals and Sarmatians, who had been making excursions into Northern Italy. After their subsequent defeat, he turned to battling the Alammani, a Germanic tribe that had been plaguing Roman borders for years. With their defeat at Pavia in 271, and the defeat of the Goths in Pannonia, he set out for Palmyra, and the reconquest of the Eastern Provinces, usurped by Zenobia.

  Zenobia, born ca. 240AD in Syria, was the daughter of Julius Aurelious Zenobius, a high ranking citizen among the Syrians. There are claims that her mother was an Egyptian, and Zenobia herself claimed descendancy from Cleopatra VII, of Caesar and Antony fame. Around the year 258AD, she married the King of Palmyra, Septimius Odaenathus. The marriage lasted until 267AD, when her husband and stepson were both assassinated. It was at this time, and setting precedence in Roman history, that instead of remarrying, Zenobia assumed the purple for herself, bestowing upon herself the title of Augusta. Ignoring any conquests and aggressions against the Sassanid Empire (Persia), she turned her attention to the south, conquering Egypt in 269AD. The Roman governor of Egypt at the time, Tenagino Probus, tried to put up a futile resistance. He was subsequently captured and beheaded.

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Palmyra
 
     After the conquest of Egypt, Zenobia turned
northwards, with the aim of taking Asia Minor. She made it as far as Ankara. At this time, the entire Eastern half of the Roman Empire was under her control. The Sassanids recognized her power, and retained a peaceful border and trade with the Palmyrenes.

During the same period, Aurelian was embattled in the reconquest of Gaul. After the pacification of the Gallic provinces, he headed east, to regain the last portion of the empire still held by usurpers. Hearing upon his impending arrival into Syria, Zenobia mustered her forces, and in 272AD, near the city of Antioch, Zenobia suffered her first defeat. Later, in 273AD, after another loss at the hands of Aurelian, Zenobia fled with her son East, towards the Sassanid Empire, and hopes of escape. She was subsequently captured by Roman horsemen near the Euphrates River.

  As was the policy of almost every Roman emperor at the time to put to death any usurper or supposed ascendant to the purple, but in the case of Zenobia, the emperor Aurelian made an exception. In 274AD, Zenobia entered the city of Rome, secured in chains made of gold, paraded in an open chariot for the general populace to see. An amnesty was declared by Aurelian, possibly due to Zenobia’s fame and beauty. She was granted a land parcel in Tibur (modern Tivoli, Italy).  

Zenobia has captured the imaginations of historians, scholars and the curious alike. In the traditions of Boudicca and Joan d’ Arc, Zenobia displayed the power a woman could wield in a time when men were the dominant force. Her gender alone should have been an object of contempt by men; her beauty desirous and protected. Instead, she led armies, often marching on foot at the head of a column, commanded the obedience of her subjects, and thumbed her nose at the world’s only superpower at the time.

  Zenobia’s rebellion may have foreshadowed on events yet to come. The Eastern provinces were always tumultuous. The Jews and their rebellions; the incursions by Persian warlords, the rise of Constantine and the Byzantine Empire, and finally the conquest by the Arabs in the name of Islam has made the region suffer one usurper or conquerer after another. What made the Palmyrene insurrection stand out was the fact that a woman was at the helm; a woman whose fame and beauty and legacy is the topic of debate and study even in modern times.

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