Zenobia Quotes
It is not by writing but by arms that the submission you require of me can be obtained. You have dared to propose my surrender to your power. You forget that Cleopatra preferred death to servitude…. When you shall see me march at the head of my allies, you will not repeat such an insolent proposition …
This audacious general and Queen of one of the Roman Provinces conquered most of the area including Egypt. Then she declared her independence from the Roman Empire itself. A master of multilateral coalition leading, she was able to attract nearby provinces to join her. The Roman Emperor Aurelian himself set out to subjugate Zenobia—the Roman, Latin name. In the first battle, the Romans won a tactical victory for some territory but lost many men. The Emperor asked Bat Zabbai to surrender, but she refused in this famous reply. She was counting on the fact that the Romans would not accept the high losses she was inflicting. See Aurelian’s letter to the Roman Senate {606345}. The Romans did however did pay the price and eventually conquered Bat Zabbai and brought her to Rome as a captive. However she was very much admired by Roman society and after she pledged to not revolt against Rome, she was allowed to live in Rome—but not go back to Syria where she might raise another army. She became a major celebrity of Roman society and married a Roman Senator. Her exploits although well known at the time lapsed into obscurity in that later Roman Christian society did not see her as a fitting Christian female example, and when Islam developed in Syria, she was not considered a model Muslim woman. So a key figure in Roman history was ignored by most of the cultures until recently where the original documentation of the time has been made more widely available.
Bat Zabbai, ?- ~273, Septimia Zenobia, Syrian Queen of Palmyra, General & Historian, Letter to Roman Emperor Aurelian
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The reference was to the Syrian Bat Zabbai, This audacious general and Queen of one of the Roman Provices conquered most of the area including Egypt. Then she declared her independence from the Roman Empire itself. A master of multilateral coalition leading, she was able to attract nearby provinces to join her. The Roman Emperor Aurelian himself set out to subjugate Zenobia—the Roman, Latin name. In the first battle, the Romans won a tactical victory for some territory but lost many men. The Emperor asked Bat Zabbai to surrender, but she refused. See {606344}. She was counting on the fact that the Romans would not accept the high losses she was inflicting. The Emperor was being criticized that the entire Roman Army was unable to beat a woman. The Romans did pay the price and eventually conquered Bat Zabbai and brought her to Rome as a captive. However she was very much admired by Roman society and after she pledged to not revolt against Rome she was allowed to live in Rome—but not go back to Syria where she might raise another army. She became a major celebrity of Roman society and married a Roman Senator. Her exploits although well known at the time lapsed into obscurity in that later Roman Christian society did not see her as a fitting Christian female example, and when Islam developed in Syria, she was not considered a model Muslim woman. So a key figure in Roman history, male or female, was ignored by most of the cultures until recently where the original documentation of the time has been made more widely available.
Septimia Zenobia ( c. 240 – c. 274) was a third-century queen of the Palmyrene Empire in Syria. Many legends surround her ancestry; she was probably not a commoner and she married the ruler of the city, Odaenathus. Her husband became king in 260, elevating Palmyra to supreme power in the Near East by defeating the Sasanian Empire of Persia and stabilizing the Roman East. After Odaenathus' assassination, Zenobia became the regent of her son Vaballathus and held de facto power throughout his reign.
