Augustan History
Apparently not a commoner, Zenobia would have received an education appropriate for a noble Palmyrene girl. The "Augustan History" contains details of her early life, although their veracity is dubious; according to the "Augustan History", the queen's hobby as a child was hunting and, in addition to her Palmyrene Aramaic mother tongue, she was fluent in Egyptian and Greek and spoke Latin. When she was about fourteen years old (ca. 255), Zenobia became the second wife of Odaenathus, the "ras" ("lord") of Palmyra. Noble families in Palmyra often intermarried, and it is probable that Zenobia and Odaenathus shared some ancestors.