### 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) - [[Zenobia, Visionary Queen of Ancient Palmyra by Judith Weingarten#q4 Zenobia correctly identified the decline of Rome|View in Vault]] - [n] #storystem/fic for something along the line of my Dido story; the fictionalized story of famous women who don't get good treatment in fiction.