Zenobia (c240 - c274). Septimia Zenobia 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 Sassanians and stabilizing the Roman East. After Odaenathus' assassination, Zenobia became the regent of her son Vaballathus and held de facto power throughout his reign. In 270, Zenobia launched an invasion which brought most of the Roman East under her sway and culminated with the annexation of Egypt. By mid-271 her realm extended from Ancyra, central Anatolia, to southern Egypt, although she remained nominally subordinate to Rome. However, in reaction to Roman emperor Aurelian's campaign in 272, Zenobia declared her son emperor and assumed the title of empress. The Romans were victorious after heavy fighting; the queen was besieged in her capital and captured by Aurelian, who exiled her to Rome where she spent the remainder of her life. Zenobia was a cultured monarch and fostered an intellectual environment in her court, which was open to scholars and philosophers. She was tolerant toward her subjects and protected religious minorities. The queen maintained a stable administration which governed a multicultural multiethnic empire. Zenobia died after 274, and many tales have been recorded about her fate. Her rise and fall have inspired historians, artists and novelists, and she is a patriotic symbol in Syria. Her face was dark and of a swarthy hue, her eyes were black and powerful beyond the usual wont, her spirit divinely great, and her beauty incredible. So white were her teeth that many thought that she had pearls in place of teeth; Augustan History Zenobia was born c. 240-241. She bore the gentilicium Septimia, and her native Palmyrene name was Bat-Zabbai. In Greek, Palmyra's diplomatic and second language, used in many Palmyrene inscriptions, she used the name Zenobia. The philologist Wilhelm Dittenberger believed that the name Bat Zabbai underwent a detortum, resulting in the name Zenobia. In Palmyra, names such as Zabeida, Zabdila, Zabbai or Zabda were often transformed into Zenobios and Zenobia when written in Greek. The historian Victor Duruy believed that the queen used the Greek name as a translation of her native name in deference to her Greek subjects. The ninth-century historian al-Tabari, in his highly fictionalized account, wrote that the queen's name was Na'ila al-Zabba. Manichaean sources called her Tadi. No contemporary statues of Zenobia have been found in Palmyra or elsewhere, only inscriptions on statues bases survive, indicating that a statue of the queen once stood in the place; most known representations of Zenobia are the idealized portraits of her found on her coins. Palmyrene sculptures were normally impersonal, unlike Greek and Roman ones: a statue of Zenobia would have given an idea of her general style in dress and jewelry but would not have revealed her true appearance. British scholar William Wright visited Palmyra toward the end of the nineteenth century in a vain search for a sculpture of the queen. In addition to archaeological evidence, Zenobia's life was recorded in different ancient sources but many are flawed or fabricated; the Augustan History, a late-Roman collection of biographies, is the most notable source for the era. The author of the Augustan History invented many events and letters attributed to Zenobia in the absence of contemporary sources. Some Augustan History accounts are corroborated from other sources, and are more credible. The Byzantine chronicler Joannes Zonaras is considered an important source for the life of Zenobia. Palmyrene society was an amalgam of Semitic tribes, and Zenobia cannot be identified with any one group; as a Palmyrene, she would have had Aramean and Arab ethnic origins. Information about Zenobia's ancestry and immediate family connections is scarce and contradictory. Nothing is known about her mother, and her father's identity is debated. Manichaean sources mention a Nafsha, sister of the queen of Palmyra, but those sources are confused and Nafsha may refer to Zenobia herself: it is doubtful that Zenobia had a sister. Apparently not a commoner, she would have received an education appropriate for a noble Palmyrene girl.