27. The Queen of the Roman East
Zenobia’s duties in charge of her family’s flocks left her accustomed to horseback riding and the outdoors life. Because of that, she developed endurance and stamina – assets that came in handy later on in her life. In her teens, Zenobia was married to Lucius Septimus Odaenathus, Rome’s client ruler of Palmyra. In the mid-200s AD, the Roman Empire was in the grip of a decades-long period of chaos and political instability that came to be known as the Crisis of the Third Century. The newly emergent Persian Sassanid Empire took advantage of that weakness to invade and conquer much of the Roman east.
A loyal client, Odaenathus took up the cudgels on Rome’s behest, fought off the Persians, and eventually recovered the lost Roman territories. For his services, the Palmyrian ruler was made governor of most of the Roman east, and in 260, he crowned himself king. In 267, Odaenathus and his eldest son by a previous wife were assassinated. So Zenobia stepped up and assumed power as regent on behalf of her underage son. She also crowned herself queen of Palmyra and surrounded herself at court with intellectuals and philosophers. She was too independent, however, and a breach gradually grew between her and the Roman Empire.