Queen Zenobia and her conflict with the Roman Empire

Queen Zenobia Origin and Life

Queen Zenobia was born in Palmyra in 240 AD and was fluent in many languages, including Greek, Latin, Egyptian and Aramaic, Syria was a province under Roman rule, so Zenobia was considered a Roman citizen.

Many scholars talked about it, including the Arab historian "Tabari" about Zenobia, who told us how she was appointed in charge of the family herds and shepherds when she was young, and this is the secret that made her get used to ruling from a young age and the matter is on men and in strict ways as well.

Queen Zenobia learned to ride horses as a child and became proficient in it, walking with her troops for long distances and hunting like any man, and this also made her adept at facing the odds.

She was educated in Alexandria schools and learned Aramaic and Egyptian. Zenobia is believed to have origins in the legendary queen Dido, founder of Carthage, and Cleopatra VII, the last Ptolemaic in Egypt.

Scholars and her family attributed her to "Philip of Macedon" and it is mentioned that she was so beautiful that it is said that she surpassed Cleopatra and some also likened her to being as beautiful as Aphrodite, the Greek goddess of beauty.

At the age of fourteen, Zenobia married King Uthaina and bore him two children.

The life of Queen Zenobia after her marriage

Queen Zenobia accompanied her husband, King Uthaina, on all his military trips and was close to him in all matters of government, which made her politically intelligent, knowledgeable in the methods of governance and skilled on the battlefield.

At that time, the Roman Empire was mired in civil wars, and shortly afterwards, King Uthaina was assassinated due to a dispute over power with some of his aspiring relatives after returning from a military trip in Anatolia.

Some historians believe that Queen Zenobia herself was somehow involved in his assassination in order to covet the rule she had already obtained after the death of Uthaina to rule Palmyra.

Zenobia on the throne of Palmyra

Zenobia did not find political opposition to her, so she was the guardian of her 10-year-old son because he is the only heir to his father, Zenobia's intelligence appeared in these unique years of rule, so she took advantage of the weakness of the Romans and made all the civilizations of Syria subject to her control along with Iraq and Palestine, which was then called the Kingdom of Judah, and her rule extended even to the invasion of Egypt and at that time she took Antioch as the capital of her new expanding kingdom.

Zenobia ruled a kingdom stretching from Ancera in central Anatolia to southern Egypt, and Zenobia's ambition did not stop there, but she aspired to make her boy son her partner in governance and even a partner of the Roman emperor in his rule as well.

Sartre points out in his book Syria in Classical Times (Hellenistic-Roman) that Zenobia granted her son the title of emperor and made Palmyra not short one of the centers of power even after the destruction of the empire in 277 AD, and continued to grow in literary, artistic, Western and even Arab traditions.

Zenobia reached an agreement with the Roman emperor "Gothecius", but he died and was succeeded by Emperor "Aurelian", who took a completely different policy with Palmyra, and then Zenobia announced the separation of her kingdom from the Roman Empire in 272 AD and declared herself an independent empress.

Queen Zenobia's conflict with Emperor Aurelian

Aurelian gathered his forces and went to Egypt, where he was able to recover it, and the central Anatolia region, and Zenobia and her forces retreated to Palmyra, Aurelian did not want to enter Palmyra directly, but went to seize the outskirts of the city, so he went to the city of "Tiana", which his soldiers dealt with peacefully, so the cities realized that their treatment and condition would be better with surrender to the emperor instead of bearing his anger.

The Roman forces could not defeat Zenobia easily, as it took more than one military tour at first, when they pretended to retreat in the formation of pincers to pounce on their forces in Palmyra and slaughter them.

The mysterious end of Zenobia

Queen Zenobia managed to escape to Homs with General Zaydas, so she had more men there and her treasuries and treasures. Aurelian pursued her and triumphed again using the same plan against the Palmyrene cavalry.

Zenobia was a strong and steadfast heroine leader until her last moments and was betting on the arrival of reinforcements and aid from the Persians, but she was disappointed, Zenobia fled Palmyra with her son on the back of a camel and tried to reach a safe place in Persia.

It is not known how Zenobia disappeared after that or how it ended in one of the accounts it is mentioned that Aurelian when he entered Palmyra found Zenobia had disappeared so he sent his soldiers to arrest her has been captured while trying to escape across the Euphrates River and returned to A, Rillian chained has been taken and known in the streets of Rome publicly, and in another version that she was tried and when she defended herself appeared eloquence in Latin language Aurelian and convinced him that she did not want to rebel against the empire and that Their men persuaded her to do so, so Aurelian tried them, married her daughter and released her, and this account is reinforced by the fact that her descendants joined the Roman nobility and may have been a political, mental and military aid to the Roman Empire afterwards.

There are those who believe that its end was as mysterious as at its beginning, but it really has an exciting and rich story full of many details, as it is one of the most important makers of history.