John and Jenny Fulton

Real International Princesses: Princess Zenobia of Palmyra

By Jenny Fulton

Introduction

My book, An International Princess Alphabet Primer, features princesses from countries and cultures around the world. Each character is named after a real person. The Princess Biographies on this blog for letters A-Y correspond with the character names in the book. However, in the book, I did not include a separate princess for letter ‘Z.’ But when I was writing the biographies for this blog and the free pdf (available on this website), it felt weird to end the alphabet at Y. And so, I researched a ‘Z’ name princess.

Because the alphabet book was written for young kids, the biographies I’m sharing are short, child-friendly, often rose-tinted summaries.

Bonus Princess Zenobia

Princess Zenobia was a powerful and ambitious queen during the last days of the Roman Empire.

Septimia Zenobia was born sometime around 240 A.D. in Palmyra (located in modern day Syria). At that time, Palmyra was a very rich province in the Roman Empire. The Silk Road, which connected China to the Roman Empire, passed right through it.

When Zenobia was still a teenager, she married a man named Odaenathus. Officially, Odaenathus was the Roman governor of Palmyra. But because Rome was so far away, he acted more like an independent king of the region. In fact, Palmyra had its own governments, laws, money, and army.

In 267 (or 268), Odaenathus and his oldest son were killed. Since Zenobia’s son Vaballathus was too young to rule, Zenobia stepped in and named herself Augusta, Empress of Palmyra. She gave her son the titles “king of kings” and “governor of all the East.” Then she removed the Roman emperor’s face from all their money and replaced it with her own to show that she no longer considered Palmyra to be part of the Roman Empire. Her next step was to encourage people to study Greek and Latin literature and to become expert artists. This told the rest of the world that the Palmyrene dynasty was as good as Rome’s.

The powers in Rome weren’t happy that Zenobia had taken control of Palmyra. However, they  couldn’t do anything about it right away because too many others were also rebelling against the Empire. So, they left her alone.

But Queen Zenobia wasn’t content to simply rule over what she had. She wanted to take more land from the Roman Empire. In 269, she conquered Egypt and many territories in the Palestine, Syria, and Asia Minor regions. Then she formerly declared her independence. Her boldness and the fact that she now controlled almost all of Rome’s eastern territories made her such a big threat that Rome’s new Emperor couldn’t afford to ignore her anymore.

Emperor Aurelian, who began ruling the Roman Empire in 270, was determined to crush all the rebellions and bring the vast empire back into unity. In 272, he turned his attention to Zenobia, the new Empress of the East. Over the next two years, Roman and Palmyrene armies fought many battles. In 273, Aurelian attacked the city of Palmyra. Zenobia and her son tried to escape but were captured.

No one knows for sure what happened to Zenobia next. Some people say she died on the way to Rome while others say she arrived in Rome with Aurelian’s army and was in his victory parade. 

Even though she was eventually defeated, Queen Zenobia continues to be seen as a strong woman ruler who, for a short time, successfully stood against the Roman Empire and ruled over an empire of her own.

*Cover Image by Satyress from Pixabay

Other Princess Bios

Works Cited