# Zenobia, Visionary Queen of Ancient Palmyra - [[Illyrian cavalry generals were powerful in Rome]] ## Highlights ### q1 coinage confirmed Zenobia's existence > if it were not for her coins Queen Zenobia would be taken as a legendary figure. There could be a kernel of truth in the story, but it is a tale so fantastical, so gendered, with sources so unreliable, that it simply could not have historical value. Yet Zenobia did exist, and she did go to war against the Romans. And, as Empress of the East, she came within a hair’s breadth of victory - [View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01fn2qe4nmf28eaz616kpya2pt) ### q2 Palmyra was threatened by Persia > it can’t have been much fun being ruler of an eastern outpost of Rome just when the Romans were reeling from defeat after defeat delivered by the new Persian Empire across the Euphrates River. In 253 A.D., the Persians attacked Syria and looted Antioch, the greatest city of the East. Three years later, Dura Europos fell, the river stronghold garrisoned by Roman and Palmyran troops. Now nothing but empty steppe stood between the enemy and Palmyra itself, the richest surviving city of Syria. - [View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01fn2qeynmgpktk8k8xbxpcbsj) ### q3 Zenobia filled a power vacuum > On hearing the news, Zenobia seized the regency on behalf of her own son, Waballath, who was still a child. At the same time, in Italy, a deadly series of coups and counter-coups played out until, eventually, a tough Illyrian cavalry general, Claudius, emerged victorious. > > Zenobia saw her chance. In 269, she sent her army into Egypt, seizing Alexandria. Nothing could have been more provocative, for the port was vital to Rome’s grain supply. Without Egyptian grain, Rome would starve. By March 270, Palmyra ruled all Egypt. During the course of that year, another Palmyran general extended Palmyran control through Syria and most of Anatolia, settling on Ankara as their border. Claudius meanwhile died of plague and another Illyrian cavalry general became emperor. That was Aurelian. - [View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01fn2qgrew57ndwxsa09yyx8qq) - Also used for: [[Illyrian cavalry generals were powerful in Rome]] ### q4 Zenobia correctly identified the decline of Rome > In every book about her, one word is always used: She was “ambitious” — as if male aspirants to the Empire were not ambitious — suggesting, too, that she was scheming and foolish or imprudent. Yet why did so many men take the huge risk of rebellion on her behalf? Surely not to satisfy a woman’s frivolous dreams. No one even considers that she might have been right: the Romans could no longer defend the East. > > Rome was corrupt. They had debased the currency; inflation was rampant; taxes had reached confiscatory levels. Emperor after emperor was murdered, unleashing civil wars as ambitious generals fought against each other, rather than against the common Persian enemy. Aurelian, who defeated her in 272 A.D., leaving a ruined Palmyra in his wake, cobbled the Empire back together, but none of the underlying problems were solved (and three years later, he too was murdered) - [View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01fn2qhs15rpv9c7ejjr91jm4f) > Twenty years later, the Empire was being ruled by four Emperors; sixty years later, Constantine established his capital at Byzantium and it split into East and West. > So, rather than “ambitious,” she seems to me visionary. - [View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01fn2qj373j6vmgd7grpxbpc61)