The Palmyrene Empire was ruled by QueenZenobia, officially as regent for her sonVaballathus, who inherited the throne in 267 at age ten. In 270, Zenobia rapidly conquered most of the Roman east, attempting to maintain relations with Rome as a legitimate power. In 271, she claimed the imperial title for both herself and her son, fighting a short war with the Roman emperorAurelian, who conquered Palmyra and captured Zenobia. A year later the Palmyrenes rebelled, which led Aurelian to raze Palmyra.
Despite its brief existence, the Palmyrene Empire is remembered for having been ruled by one of the most ambitious and powerful women in antiquity. It is also hailed in modern-day Syria, where it plays an important role as an icon inSyrian nationalism.
Following the murder of Roman emperorAlexander Severus in 235,[6] general after general squabbled over control of the empire,[7] the frontiers were neglected and subjected to frequent raids byCarpians,Goths andAlemanni,[8][9] in addition to outright attacks from the aggressiveSassanids in the east.[10] Finally,Shapur I of Persia inflicted a disastrous defeat upon the Romans at theBattle of Edessa in 260,[11] capturing the Roman emperorValerian and soon,Quietus andMacrianus rebelled against Valerian's sonGallienus and usurped the imperial power in Syria.[12]
The Palmyrene leaderOdaenathus was declared king,[13] and remained nominally loyal to Gallienus, forming an army of Palmyrenes and Syrian peasants to attack Shapur.[note 2][11] In 260, Odaenathus won a decisive victory over Shapur in a battle near theEuphrates.[12] Next, Odaenathus defeated the usurpers in 261,[12] and spent the remainder of his reign fighting the Persians.[15][16][17] Odaenathus received the titleGovernor of the East,[12] and ruled Syria as the imperial representative,[18] and declared himselfKing of Kings.[note 3][21] Odaenathus was assassinated along with his sonHairan in 267;[12] according toJoannes Zonaras and theHistoria Augusta, he was killed by his cousin, whose name is given by the latter source asMaeonius.[22] TheHistoria Augusta also claims that Maeonius was proclaimed emperor for a very brief period, before being executed by the soldiers.[22][23][24] No inscriptions or other evidence exist for Maeonius' reign, and he was probably killed immediately after assassinating Odaenathus.[25][26]
Odaenathus was succeeded by his minor son, the ten-year-oldVaballathus,[27] under the regency of Zenobia.[27][28] Vaballathus was kept in the shadow while his mother assumed actual rule and consolidated her power.[27] The queen was careful not to provoke Rome and took for herself and her son the titles that her husband had, while working on guaranteeing the safety of the borders with Persia, and pacifying the dangerousTanukhid tribes inHauran.[27]
Vaballathus (right) as king on the obverse of anAntoninianus. To the left, Aurelian as Augustus on the reverse.
Zenobia started an expedition against theTanukhids in the spring of 270, during the reign of emperorClaudius Gothicus[29] aided by her generals,Septimius Zabbai (a general of the army) and SeptimiusZabdas (the chief general of the army).[30]
Zabdas sackedBosra, killed the Roman governor, and marched south securingRoman Arabia.[29][31] According to the Persian geographerIbn Khordadbeh, Zenobia herself attackedDumat Al-Jandal but could not conquer its castle.[32] However, Ibn Khordadbeh likely confused Zenobia with al-Zabbā, a semi-legendary Arab queen whose story is often confused with Zenobia's story.[33][34][35][36]
In October of 270,[37] a Palmyrene army of 70,000 invadedEgypt,[38][39] and declared Zenobia queen of Egypt.[40] The Roman generalTenagino Probus was able to regainAlexandria in November, but was defeated and escaped to the fortress ofBabylon, where he was besieged and committed suicide after being captured by Zabdas, who continued his march south and secured Egypt.[41] Afterward, in 271, Zabbai started the operations inAsia Minor, and was joined by Zabdas in the spring of that year.[42] The Palmyrenes subduedGalatia,[42] and occupiedAncyra, marking the greatest extent of the Palmyrene expansion.[43] However, the attempts to conquerChalcedon were unsuccessful.[42]
The Palmyrene conquests were done under the protective show of subordination to Rome.[44] Zenobia issued coinage in the name of Claudius' successorAurelian with Vaballathus depicted as king,[note 4] while the emperor allowed the Palmyrene coinage and conferred the Palmyrene royal titles.[45] However, toward the end of 271, Vaballathus took the title ofAugustus along with his mother.[44]
Vaballathus as Augustus, on the obverse of an Antoninianus.Zenobia as Augusta, on the obverse of an Antoninianus.Aurelian-Zenobia war.
In 272, Aurelian crossed theBosphorus and advanced quickly throughAnatolia.[46] According to one account,Marcus Aurelius Probus regained Egypt from Palmyra,[note 5][47] while the emperor continued his march and reachedTyana.[48] Thefall of Tyana lent itself to a legend; Aurelian to that point had destroyed every city that resisted him, but he spared Tyana after having a vision of the great philosopherApollonius of Tyana, whom he respected greatly, in a dream.[49] Apollonius implored him, stating: "Aurelian, if you desire to rule, abstain from the blood of the innocent! Aurelian, if you will conquer, be merciful!".[50] Whatever the reason for his clemency, Aurelian's sparing of Tyana paid off; many more cities submitted to him upon seeing that the emperor would not exact revenge upon them.[49]
EnteringIssus and heading toAntioch, Aurelian defeated Zenobia in theBattle of Immae.[51] Zenobia retreated to Antioch then fled toEmesa while Aurelian advanced and took the former.[52] After regrouping, the Romans first destroyed a Palmyrene garrison stationed at the fort of Daphne,[note 6][54] and headed south toApamea,[55] then continued to Emesa and defeated Zenobia again at theBattle of Emesa, forcing her to evacuate to the capital.[56] Aurelian marched through the desert and was harassed byBedouins loyal to Palmyra, but as soon as he arrived at the city gates, he negotiated with the Bedouins, who betrayed Palmyra and supplied the Roman army with water and food.[57] Aurelian besieged Palmyra in the summer of 272,[58] and tried to negotiate with Zenobia, on the condition that she surrender herself in person to him, to which she answered with refusal.[43] The Romans tried to breach the city defenses several times but were repelled,[59] however, as the situation deteriorated, Zenobia left the city and headed east to ask the Persians for help.[60] The Romans followed the empress, captured her near the Euphrates and brought her back to the emperor. Soon after, the Palmyrene citizens asked for peace,[60] and the city capitulated.[58][61]
Aurelian, personification ofSol, defeats the Palmyrene Empire, and celebrates ORIENS AVG, the Augustus Rising Sun.
Aurelian spared the city and stationed a garrison of 600 archers led by a certainSandarion, as a peacekeeping force.[62] The defenses were destroyed and most of the military equipment was confiscated.[63] Zenobia and her council were taken to Emesa and put on trial. Most of the high-ranking Palmyrene officials were executed,[64] while Zenobia's and Vaballathus's fates are uncertain.[65]
In 273, Palmyra rebelled under the leadership of a citizen namedSeptimius Apsaios,[66] and contacted the Roman prefect of Mesopotamia,Marcellinus, offering to help him usurp the imperial power.[66] Marcellinus delayed the negotiations and sent word to the Roman emperor,[66] while the rebels lost their patience and declared a relative of Zenobia namedAntiochus as Augustus.[67] Aurelian marched against Palmyra and was helped by a Palmyrene faction from inside the city, headed by a man with a senatorial rank named Septimius Haddudan.[68][69]
Aurelian spared Antiochus,[69] but razed Palmyra.[70] The most valuable monuments were taken by the emperor to decorate hisTemple of Sol,[61] while buildings were smashed, people wereclubbed and cudgeled and Palmyra's holiesttemple pillaged.[61]
The ultimate motive behind the revolt is debated; when dealing with the rise of Palmyra and the rebellion of Zenobia, historians most often interpreted the ascendancy as an indication of cultural, ethnic or social factors.[71]Andreas Alföldi viewed the rebellion as a completely native ethnic opposition against Rome.[71]Irfan Shahîd considered Zenobia's revolt a pan-Arab movement that was a forerunner of theArab expansion of the Caliphates;[71] an opinion shared byFranz Altheim,[71] and an almost universal view amongst Arab and Syrian scholars such asPhilip Khuri Hitti.[72][73]Mark Whittow disagreed that the revolt was ethnic in its nature and emphasized that it was a reaction to the weakness of Rome and its inability to protect Palmyra from the Persians.[74]Warwick Ball viewed the rebellion as aimed at Rome's throne, not just Palmyrene independence.[75] Vaballathus' inscriptions indicated the style of aRoman emperor; according to Ball, Zenobia and Vaballathus werecontenders for the Roman imperial throne, following a plan similar to that ofVespasian, who ascended the throne after building his power-base in Syria.[75][74]Andrew M. Smith II considered the revolt as a bid for both independence and the Roman throne.[76] The Palmyrene royalty used Eastern titles such asking of kings, which had no relevance in Roman politics, while the conquests were in the interest of Palmyrene commerce.[76] Finally, it was only in the last regnal year of Zenobia and Vaballathus that the Roman imperial rank was claimed.[76]Fergus Millar, although tending toward the view that it was not only an independence movement, believes there is not yet enough evidence to draw a conclusion on the nature of Palmyra's revolt.[77]
During the mid-twentieth century, interest in the Palmyrene Empire was briefly revived by the advent ofSyrian nationalism.[78] Modern Syrian nationalists viewed the empire as a uniquely Syrian civilization which attempted to liberate the masses of the Levant from Roman rule.[79] A Syrian TV show was produced based on Zenobia's life, and she was the subject of a biography written by Syria's former minister of defenseMustafa Tlass.[79]
^Alexandria was the second largest city in the Roman Empire (afterRome itself),[2] with a population of around 500,000–600,000, during theprincipate.[3] The population of Palmyra in the middle of the 3rd century is estimated to have been 150,000–200,000.[4]
^No evidence exists for Roman units serving in the ranks of Odaenathus; whether Roman soldiers fought under Odaenathus or not is a matter of speculation.[14]
^The first decisive evidence for the use of this title for Odaenathus is an inscription dated to 271, posthumously describing Odaenathus as king of kings.[11][19] Odaenathus' son Hairan I is directly attested as "King of Kings" during his lifetime. Hairan I was proclaimed by his father as co-ruler; it is unlikely that Odaenathus was simply a king while his son held the King of Kings title.[20]
^Claudius died in August 270, shortly before Zenobia's invasion of Egypt.[37]
^All other accounts indicate that a military action was not necessary, as it seems that Zenobia had withdrawn her forces in order to defend Syria.[47]
^Daphne was a garden located six miles south of Antioch.[53]
Nakamura, Byron (1993). "Palmyra and the Roman East".Greek, Roman, and Byzantine Studies.34. Duke University, Department of Classical Studies.ISSN0017-3916.
Zahrān, Yāsamīn (2003).Zenobia between reality and legend. BAR (British Archaeological Reports) International Series. Vol. 1169. Archaeopress.ISBN978-1-84171-537-7.
Whittow, Mark (2010). "The late Roman/early Byzantine Near East". InRobinson, Chase F. (ed.).The New Cambridge History of Islam, Volume 1: The Formation of the Islamic World, Sixth to Eleventh Centuries. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.ISBN978-0-521-83823-8.
Ball, Warwick (2002).Rome in the East: The Transformation of an Empire. Routledge.ISBN978-1-134-82387-1.
Smith II, Andrew M. (2013).Roman Palmyra: Identity, Community, and State Formation. Oxford University Press.ISBN978-0-19-986110-1.
Millar, Fergus (1993).The Roman Near East, 31 B.C.-A.D. 337. Harvard University Press.ISBN978-0-674-77886-3.
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