page_title: Zenobia
section_title: Titles
hierarchical_section_title: Zenobia / Titles
caption_attribution_description: English: Lead token from Antioch mentioning Zenobia as queen from 268 AD.[1]
context_page_description: 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 the campaign of the Roman emperor Aurelian 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.
context_section_description: The queen owed her elevated position to her son's minority. To celebrate Herodianus' coronation, a statue was erected in Palmyra in 263. According to the inscription on the base of the statue, it was commissioned by Septimius Worod, then the duumviri (magistrate) of Palmyra, and Julius Aurelius, the Queen's procurator (treasurer). According to the historian David Potter, Zenobia is the queen mentioned, and the inscription is an evidence for the usage of the title by her during Odaenathus' lifetime. An inscription on a milestone on the road between Palmyra and Emesa, dated to Zenobia's early reign, identifies her as "illustrious queen, mother of the king of kings"; this was the first inscription giving her an official position. A lead token from Antioch also identifies Zenobia as queen.
  The earliest confirmed attestation of Zenobia as queen in Palmyra is an inscription on the base of a statue erected for her by Zabdas and Zabbai, dated to August 271 and calling her "most illustrious and pious queen". On an undated milestone found near Byblos, Zenobia is titled Sebaste. The queen was never acknowledged as sole monarch in Palmyra, although she was the de facto sovereign of the empire; she was always associated with her husband or son in inscriptions, except in Egypt (where some coins were minted in Zenobia's name alone). According to her coins, the queen assumed the title of Augusta (empress) in 272, and reigned under the regnal name Septimia Zenobia Augusta.
caption: Lead token naming Zenobia as queen c. 268
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