Zenobia: Shooting Star of PalmyraHailing from the Syrian city of Palmyra, a woman named Zenobia (also Bathzabbai) governed territory in the eastern Roman empire from 268 to 272. She thus became the most famous Palmyrene who ever lived. But sources for her life and career are scarce. This book situates Zenobia in the social, economic, cultural, and material context of her Palmyra. By doing so, it aims to shed greater light on the experiences of Zenobia and Palmyrene women like her at various stages of their lives. Not limiting itself to the political aspects of her governance, it contemplates what inscriptions and material culture at Palmyra enable us to know about women and the practice of gender there, and thus the world that Zenobia navigated. It reflects on her clothes, house, hygiene, property owning, gestures, religious practices, funerary practices, education, languages, social identities, marriage, and experiences motherhood, along with her meteoric rise to prominence and civil war. It also ponders Zenobia's legacy in light of the contemporary human tragedy in Syria. |
Contents
1 Zenobias Likenesses | 1 |
Part I Palmyra Zenobias City | 15 |
Part II Embryonic Star | 57 |
Part III Rising Star | 109 |
Part IV Shooting Star | 163 |
Fallen Star | 213 |
Palmyrene Monuments Mentioned | 231 |
Brief and Simple Guide to Palmyrenean Aramaic | 233 |
Inscriptions for Odainaths Household | 235 |
| 245 | |
| 279 | |
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Common terms and phrases
3rd century Aglibol Allat Andrade Antioch apparently Appendix Arab Arabian Aramaean Aramaic army Aruz As‘ad Aurelian caravan Christian civic council claimed Claudius coins Colinet Colledge Colonnade consularis Cussini daughter Delplace depict discusses Dura Dura-Europos dynast East eastern Egypt Elagabalus elite Emesa encountered Equini Schneider 1993 father figure Finlayson 1998 funerary portraits Gallienus Gallienus's court gender governed Greek Hairan Hartmann Herodian Herodian Hairan Heyn hinterland Historia Augusta honor household husband IGLS Ingholt inscriptions Iulia Kaizer killed king Krag Latin learned lived Lucian Maeonius mtqnn named nomads Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek Odainath Palmyra Palmyrene women Palmyrenean Palmyrenes Parthian perhaps Persian Potter presumably probably queen Raja reportedly Roman Empire Roman Syria Saito sarcophagi Sartre and Sartre Schlumberger 1951 Septimius Shapur slaves Smith social sometimes Sommer sources Southern statues temple tomb tribes Wahballath Winsbury woman Zabbai Zabdas Zenobia Zenobia's Palmyra Zonaras Zosimus καὶ τὸν