[16] Manichaean sources, reporting the visit of the apostle Addai to the region during the time of Odaenathus, called Zenobia "Queen Tadi", wife of kysr (caesar).

[19] The non-contemporary historian Edward Gibbon has described her as being “of a dark complexion” and considered “most lovely,” and that she “equalled in beauty her [claimed] ancestor Cleopatra.”[20] British scholar William Wright visited Palmyra toward the end of the nineteenth century in a vain search for a sculpture of the queen.

[28] The historian Patricia Southern, noting that Antiochus was mentioned without a royal title or a hint of great lineage, believes that he was a direct ancestor or a relative rather than a Seleucid king who lived three centuries before Zenobia.

[note 5][9] According to the Souda, a 10th-century Byzantine encyclopedia,[38] after the Palmyrene conquest of Egypt,[39] the sophist Callinicus of Petra wrote a ten-volume history of Alexandria dedicated to Cleopatra.

[98] Another factor may have been the weakness of Roman central authority and its corresponding inability to protect the provinces, which probably convinced Zenobia that the only way to maintain stability in the East was to control the region directly.

[100] In the spring of 270, while Claudius was fighting the Goths in the mountains of Thrace, Zenobia sent her general Septimius Zabdas to Bosra (capital of the province of Arabia Petraea);[97] the queen's timing seems intentional.

[97] A Latin inscription after the fall of Zenobia attests to its destruction:[103] "The temple of Iuppiter Hammon, destroyed by the Palmyrene enemies, which ... rebuilt, with a silver statue and iron doors (?)".

[90] The invasion of Arabia coincided with the cessation of coin production in Claudius' name by the Antiochean mint, indicating that Zenobia had begun tightening her grip on Syria.

[107] The Arabian milestones presented the Palmyrene king as a Roman governor and commander, referring to him as vir clarissimus rex consul imperator dux Romanorum.

[128] The Palmyrene court was probably dominated by this school of thought, with an intellectual narrative presenting Palmyra's dynasty as a Roman imperial one succeeding the Persian, Seleucid and Ptolemaic rulers who controlled the region in which Hellenistic culture allegedly originated.

[128] Nicostratus wrote a history of the Roman Empire from Philip the Arab to Odaenathus, presenting the latter as a legitimate imperial successor and contrasting his successes with the disastrous reigns of the emperors.

[137] In Antioch—considered representative of political control of the East and containing a large Christian community—Zenobia apparently maintained authority over the church by bringing influential clerics, probably including Paul of Samosata, under her auspices.

[118] In Cairo,[145] a plaque originally bearing an inscription confirming a grant of immunity to a Jewish synagogue in the last quarter of the first millennium BC by King Ptolemy Euergetes (I or II) was found.

[129][146] The historian E. Mary Smallwood wrote that good relations with the diaspora community did not mean that the Jews of Palestine were content with Zenobia's reign, and her rule was apparently opposed in that region.

[168] Finally, Palmyra officially broke with Rome;[169] the Alexandrian and Antiochian mints removed Aurelian's portrait from the coins in April 272, issuing new tetradrachms in the names of Vaballathus and Zenobia (who were called Augustus and Augusta, respectively).

[171] Zenobia also probably understood the inevitability of open conflict with Aurelian, and decided that feigning subordination would be useless;[173] her assumption of the imperial title was used to rally soldiers to her cause.

[177] All the cities in Asia Minor opened their doors to the Roman emperor, with only Tyana putting up some resistance before surrendering; this cleared the path for Aurelian to invade Syria, the Palmyrene heartland.

[181] To conceal the disaster and make her flight safer, she spread reports that Aurelian was captured; Zabdas found a man who resembled the Roman emperor and paraded him through Antioch.

[187] As the situation worsened, the queen left the city for Persia intending on seeking help from Palmyra's former enemy; according to Zosimus, she rode a "female camel, the fastest of its breed and faster than any horse".

[191] The empress's reported cowardice in defeat was probably Aurelian's propaganda; it benefited the emperor to paint Zenobia as selfish and traitorous, discouraging the Palmyrenes from hailing her as a hero.

[196] Most ancient historians and modern scholars agree that Zenobia was displayed in Aurelian's 274 triumph;[196] Zosimus was the only source to say that the empress died before reaching Rome, making his account questionable.

[171] The queen was never acknowledged as sole monarch in Palmyra, although she was the de facto sovereign of the empire;[74] she was always associated with her husband or son in inscriptions, except in Egypt (where some coins were minted in Zenobia's name alone).

[220] On the other hand, Macurdy, citing the language Zosimus used when he described him, considered it more plausible that Antiochus was not a son of Zenobia, but a family relation who used her name to legitimize his claim to the throne.

[229] In the view of Watson, Zenobia should not be seen as a total powermonger, nor as a selfless hero fighting for a cause; according to the historian David Graf, "She took seriously the titles and responsibilities she assumed for her son and that her program was far more ecumenical and imaginative than that of her husband Odenathus, not just more ambitious".

[27] The queen is a female role model;[230] according to the historian Michael Rostovtzeff, Catherine the Great liked to compare herself to Zenobia as a woman who created military might and an intellectual court.

[228] According to Southern, "The real Zenobia is elusive, perhaps ultimately unattainable, and novelists, playwrights and historians alike can absorb the available evidence, but still need to indulge in varied degrees of speculation.

[243] When the Augustan History reached the biography of Aurelian, the author's view of Zenobia changed dramatically; the queen is depicted as a guilty, insolent, proud coward;[243] her wisdom was discredited and her actions deemed the result of manipulation by advisers.

[244] According to the Augustan History, Zenobia had a clear, manly voice, dressed as an emperor (rather than an empress), rode horseback, was attended by eunuchs instead of ladies-in-waiting, marched with her army, drank with her generals, was careful with money (contrary to the stereotypical spending habits of her sex) and pursued masculine hobbies such as hunting.

[245] Giovanni Boccaccio wrote a fanciful 14th-century account of the queen in which she is a tomboy in childhood who preferred wrestling with boys, wandering in the forests and killing goats to playing like a young girl.

[53] This interest peaked during the mid-nineteenth century, when Lady Hester Stanhope visited Palmyra and wrote that its people treated her like the queen; she was reportedly greeted with singing and dancing, and Bedouin warriors stood on the city's columns.