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It is not certain that the warrior-king Odenathus was actually thinking of the good of his city when he sent for Longinus. Perhaps he merely wanted his youthful second wife, Zenobia, to acquire a little learning so that she would do him honor. And so it became Longinus's principal task to instruct the beautiful queen of the dux Romanorum. We do not know whether she was Syrian, Arabian, or Hebrew; she is described as dark-skinned, with radiant black eyes, a lithe body, and a vibrant, rather mannish voice. She was considered one of the most beautiful women of the age, and accompanied her husband on his hunts and his military campaigns.

Unexpectedly, Zenobia found herself raised to the seat of power. While Palmyra's soldiers were fighting Gothic tribes in Asia Minor, Odenathus was slain in Emesa. At almost the same time Odenathus's sun was assassinated. Perhaps the powerful ruler and his son were eliminated on orders from Rome; perhaps Zenobia herself instigated the murders in order to establish her own children as Odenathus's successors. In any case, the black-eyed queen assumed the rule of Palmyra and its dependent territories as regent for her minor children. Her chief adviser was the philosopher Longinus.

If a historic situation can ever be described by the word fascinating, this was the word for the situation around A.D. 270. The Roman Empire was engaged in warfare on almost all its borders; its hands were tied in regard to Palmyra. The Goths had invaded Greece, conquered Athens, pillaged Sparta and Corinth. Out of these upheavals there rose on the fringes of Mediterranean civilization a new empire whose center was an oasis in the desert and whose ruler was a young woman: Queen Zenobia. Her troops defeated the Roman army. She conquered Egypt and forged an alliance with Persia...

It is a remarkable development: three hundred years after its first mention in Roman accounts this commercial city without any military tradition had suddenly become Rome's mightiest adversary. With the rise of Palmyra the whole of the subjugated Orient seemed to spring to new power and prestige. Roman, Hellenistic, and Persian customs formed a unique compound at Zenobia's court. Table manners and court ceremonial were Persian; anyone admitted to an audience with the Queen had to fall to the ground before her and touch the earth with his face. But when the Queen appeared before the populace, she wore the male dress of a Roman emperor.

Zenobia spoke Egyptian and Aramaic fluently, Greek very well - she read Homer and Plato - and Latin poorly. But, for all her attainments, she was woman enough to love display. For her hoped-for victorious entry into Rome she had a magnificent chariot built. Her mode of life is described as chaste and moderate, but she was also said to be capable of drinking the Persian and Armenian envoys at her court under the table.

Even at a distance of seventeen hundred years we can feel something akin to sympathy for Palmyra and its ruler. It is sympathy for the weaker, for a city that possessed no class of experienced soldiers or statesmen. Yet, with the naive rashness of suddenly acquired wealth and power, this city had dared to challenge the Romans. It was soon to be taught its lesson...

Zenobia was taken to Rome. Oddly enough, we do not know her further fate. According to some sources, she refused all food in order not to be paraded through the streets in a Roman triumph, and died of starvation en route. According to other sources, she was pardoned and ended her days in a villa at Tivoli. Her daughters are said to have married Roman senators.