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The victory of
Claudius over the
Goths, and the success of
Aurelian against the
Alemanni, had already restored to the arms of
Rome their ancient superiority over the barbarous nations of the North. To chastise domestic tyrants, and to reunite the
dismembered parts of the empire, was a task reserved for the second of those
warlike emperors. Though he was acknowledged
by the
senate and people, the frontiers of
Italy,
Africa,
Illyricum, and
Thrace, confined the limits of his reign.
Gaul,
Spain, and
Britain,
Egypt,
Syria, and
Asia Minor, were still possessed by two rebels, who alone, out of so numerous a list, had hitherto
escaped the dangers of their situation; and to complete the
ignominy of
Rome, these rival thrones had been usurped by women.
A rapid succession of monarchs had arisen and fallen in the provinces of
Gaul. The rigid virtues of
Posthumus served only to
hasten his destruction. After suppressing a competitor, who had assumed the purple at
Mentz, he refused to gratify his troops
with the plunder of the rebellious city; and in the seventh year of his reign, became the victim of their disappointed
avarice.
46
The death of
Victorinus, his friend and associate, was occasioned by a less worthy cause. The shining accomplishments
47 of
that prince were stained by a licentious passion, which he indulged in acts of violence, with too little regard to the laws of
society, or even to those of love.
48 He was slain at
Cologne, by a conspiracy of jealous husbands, whose revenge would have
appeared more justifiable, had they spared the innocence of his son. After the murder of so many valiant princes, it is
somewhat remarkable, that a female for a long time controlled the fierce legions of Gaul, and still more singular, that she was
the mother of the unfortunate Victorinus. The arts and treasures of
Victoria enabled her successively to place
Marius and
Tetricus on the throne, and to reign with a manly vigor under the name of those dependent emperors. Money of copper, of
silver, and of gold, was coined in her name; she assumed the titles of
Augusta and Mother of the Camps: her power ended only
with her life; but her life was perhaps shortened by the ingratitude of Tetricus.
49
Footnote 46: His competitor was Lollianus, or Aelianus, if, indeed, these names mean the same person. See Tillemont, tom.
iii. p. 1177. Note: The medals which bear the name of Lollianus are considered forgeries except one in the museum of the
Prince of Waldeck there are many extent bearing the name of Laelianus, which appears to have been that of the competitor of
Posthumus. Eckhel. Doct. Num. t. vi. 149 - G.
Footnote 47: The character of this prince by Julius Aterianus (ap. Hist. August. p. 187) is worth transcribing, as it seems fair
and impartial Victorino qui Post Junium Posthumium Gallias rexit neminem existemo praeferendum; non in virtute
Trajanum; non Antoninum in clementia; non in gravitate Nervam; non in gubernando aerario Vespasianum; non in Censura
totius vitae ac severitate militari Pertinacem vel Severum. Sed omnia haec libido et cupiditas voluptatis mulierriae sic perdidit,
ut nemo audeat virtutes ejus in literas mittere quem constat omnium judicio meruisse puniri.
Footnote 48: He ravished the wife of Attitianus, an actuary, or army agent, Hist. August. p. 186. Aurel. Victor in Aurelian.
Footnote 49: Pollio assigns her an article among the thirty tyrants. Hist. August. p. 200.
When, at the instigation of his ambitious patroness, Tetricus assumed the ensigns of
royalty, he was governor of the peaceful
province of
Aquitaine, an employment suited to his character and education. He reigned four or five years over Gaul, Spain, and
Britain, the slave and
sovereign of a licentious army, whom he dreaded, and by whom he was despised. The valor and fortune of
Aurelian at length opened the prospect of a deliverance. He ventured to disclose his melancholy situation, and conjured the
emperor to hasten to the relief of his unhappy rival. Had this secret correspondence reached the ears of the soldiers, it would
most probably have cost Tetricus his life; nor could he resign the
sceptre of the West without committing an act of
treason
against himself. He affected the appearances of a civil war, led his forces into the field, against Aurelian, posted them in the
most disadvantageous manner, betrayed his own counsels to his enemy, and with a few chosen friends deserted in the
beginning of the action. The rebel legions, though disordered and dismayed by the unexpected
treachery of their chief,
defended themselves with desperate valor, till they were cut in pieces almost to a man, in this bloody and memorable battle,
which was fought near Chalons in
Champagne.
50 The retreat of the irregular auxiliaries, Franks and Batavians,
51 whom the conqueror soon compelled or persuaded to repass the
Rhine, restored the general tranquillity, and the power of Aurelian
was acknowledged from the wall of Antoninus to the columns of
Hercules.
Footnote 50: Pollio in Hist. August. p. 196.
Vopiscus in Hist. August. p. 220. The two Victors, in the lives of Gallienus and Aurelian. Eutrop. ix. 13. Euseb. in Chron. Of all
these writers, only the two last (but with strong probability) place the fall of Tetricus before that of Zenobia. M. de Boze (in the
Academy of Inscriptions, tom. xxx.) does not wish, and Tillemont (tom. iii. p. 1189) does not dare to follow them. I have been
fairer than the one, and bolder than the other.
Footnote 51: Victor Junior in Aurelian. Eumenius mentions Batavicoe; some critics, without any reason, would fain alter the
word to Bagandicoe.
As early as the reign of
Claudius, the city of Autun, alone and unassisted, had ventured to declare against the legions of
Gaul.
After a siege of seven months, they stormed and plundered that unfortunate city, already wasted by
famine.
52 Lyons, on the
contrary, had resisted with obstinate disaffection the arms of Aurelian. We read of the
punishment of Lyons,
53 but there is
not any mention of the rewards of Autun. Such, indeed, is the policy of civil war; severely to remember injuries, and to forget
the most important services.
Revenge is profitable, gratitude is expensive.
Footnote 52: Eumen. in Vet. Panegyr. iv. 8.
Footnote 53: Vopiscus in Hist. August. p. 246. Autun was not restored till the reign of Diocletian. See Eumenius de
restaurandis scholis.
Aurelian had no sooner secured the person and provinces of Tetricus, than he turned his arms against Zenobia, the celebrated
queen of
Palmyra and the East. Modern Europe has produced several illustrious women who have sustained with glory the
weight of empire; nor is our own age destitute of such distinguished characters. But if we except the doubtful achievements of
Semiramis,
Zenobia is perhaps the only female whose superior genius broke through the servile indolence imposed on her sex
by the climate and manners of
Asia.
54 She claimed her descent from the Macedonian kings of
Egypt,
* equaled in beauty her ancestor
Cleopatra, and far surpassed that princess in chastity
55 and valor. Zenobia was esteemed the most lovely as
well as the most heroic of her sex. She was of a dark complexion, (for in speaking of a lady these trifles become important.) Her
teeth were of a pearly whiteness, and her large black eyes sparkled with uncommon fire, tempered by the most attractive
sweetness. Her voice was strong and harmonious. Her manly understanding was strengthened and adorned by study. She was
not ignorant of the
Latin tongue, but possessed in equal perfection the
Greek, the Syriac, and the Egyptian languages. She had
drawn up for her own use an epitome of oriental history, and familiarly compared the beauties of
Homer and
Plato under the
tuition of the
sublime Longinus.
Footnote 54: Almost everything that is said of the manners of Odenathus and Zenobia is taken from their lives in the
Augustan History, by Trebeljus Pollio; see p. 192, 198.
Footnote *: According to some Christian writers, Zenobia was a Jewess. (Jost Geschichte der Israel. iv. 16. Hist. of Jews, iii.
175.) - M.
Footnote 55: She never admitted her husband's embraces but for the sake of posterity. If her hopes were baffled, in the
ensuing month she reiterated the experiment.
This accomplished woman gave her hand to
Odenathus,
! who, from a private station, raised himself to the dominion of the
East. She soon became the friend and companion of a hero. In the intervals of war, Odenathus passionately delighted in the
exercise of hunting; he pursued with ardor the wild beasts of the desert, lions, panthers, and bears; and the ardor of Zenobia in
that dangerous amusement was not inferior to his own. She had inured her constitution to fatigue, disdained the use of a
covered carriage, generally appeared on horseback in a military habit, and sometimes marched several miles on foot at the
head of the troops. The success of Odenathus was in a great measure ascribed to her incomparable
prudence and
fortitude.
Their splendid victories over the Great King, whom they twice pursued as far as the gates of
Ctesiphon, laid the foundations of
their united fame and power. The armies which they commanded, and the provinces which they had saved, acknowledged not any
other sovereigns than their invincible chiefs. The senate and people of
Rome revered a stranger who had avenged their captive
emperor, and even the insensible son of
Valerian accepted Odenathus for his legitimate colleague.
Footnote !: According to Zosimus, Odenathus was of a noble family in Palmyra and according to Procopius, he was prince of
the Saracen, who inhabit the ranks of the Euphrates. Echhel. Doct. Num. vii. 489. - G.
Part III.
After a successful expedition against the
Gothic plunderers of Asia, the Palmyrenian prince returned to the city of Emesa in
Syria.
Invincible in war, he was there cut off by domestic treason, and his favorite amusement of hunting was the cause, or at
least the occasion, of his death.
56 His nephew Maeonius presumed to dart his
javelin before that of his uncle; and though
admonished of his error, repeated the same insolence. As a
monarch, and as a sportsman, Odenathus was provoked, took away
his horse, a mark of ignominy among the barbarians, and chastised the rash youth by a short confinement. The offence was
soon forgot, but the punishment was remembered; and Maeonius, with a few daring associates, assassinated his uncle in the
midst of a great entertainment. Herod, the son of Odenathus, though not of
Zenobia, a young man of a soft and effeminate
temper,
57 was killed with his father. But Maeonius obtained only the pleasure of revenge by this bloody deed. He had
scarcely time to assume the title of Augustus, before he was sacrificed by Zenobia to the memory of her husband.
58
Footnote 56: Hist. August. p. 192, 193. Zosimus, l. i. p. 36. Zonaras, l. xii p. 633. The last is clear and probable, the others
confused and inconsistent. The text of Syncellus, if not corrupt, is absolute nonsense.
Footnote 57: Odenathus and Zenobia often sent him, from the spoils of the enemy, presents of gems and toys, which he
received with infinite delight.
Footnote 58: Some very unjust suspicions have been cast on Zenobia, as if she was accessory to her husband's death.
With the assistance of his most faithful friends, she immediately filled the vacant throne, and governed with manly counsels
Palmyra,
Syria, and the East, above five years. By the death of Odenathus, that authority was at an end which the senate had
granted him only as a personal distinction; but his martial widow, disdaining both the senate and
Gallienus, obliged one of the
Roman generals, who was sent against her, to retreat into Europe, with the loss of his army and his reputation.
59 Instead of
the little passions which so frequently perplex a female reign, the steady administration of
Zenobia was guided by the most
judicious maxims of policy. If it was expedient to pardon, she could calm her resentment; if it was necessary to punish, she
could impose silence on the voice of pity. Her strict economy was accused of
avarice; yet on every proper occasion she appeared
magnificent and liberal. The neighboring states of
Arabia,
Armenia, and
Persia, dreaded her enmity, and solicited her alliance.
To the dominions of Odenathus, which extended from the Euphrates to the frontiers of
Bithynia, his widow added the
inheritance of her ancestors, the populous and fertile kingdom of Egypt.
60 * The emperor
Claudius acknowledged her
merit, and was content, that, while he pursued the
Gothic war, she should assert the dignity of the empire in the East.
61 The
conduct, however, of Zenobia, was attended with some ambiguity; not is it unlikely that she had conceived the design of erecting
an independent and hostile monarchy. She blended with the popular manners of Roman princes the stately pomp of the courts of
Asia, and exacted from her subjects the same adoration that was paid to the successor of
Cyrus. She bestowed on her three
sons
61 a Latin education, and often showed them to the troops adorned with the
Imperial purple. For herself she reserved the
diadem, with the splendid but doubtful title of Queen of the East.
Footnote 59: Hist. August. p. 180, 181.
Footnote 60: See, in Hist. August. p. 198, Aurelian's testimony to her merit; and for the conquest of Egypt, Zosimus, l. i. p.
39, 40.
Footnote *: This seems very doubtful. Claudius, during all his reign, is represented as emperor on the medals of Alexandria,
which are very numerous. If Zenobia possessed any power in Egypt, it could only have been at the beginning of the reign of
Aurelian. The same circumstance throws great improbability on her conquests in Galatia. Perhaps Zenobia administered
Egypt in the name of Claudius, and emboldened by the death of that prince, subjected it to her own power. - G.
Footnote 61: Timolaus, Herennianus, and Vaballathus. It is supposed that the two former were already dead before the war.
On the last, Aurelian bestowed a small province of Armenia, with the title of King; several of his medals are still extant. See
Tillemont, tom. 3, p. 1190.
When Aurelian passed over into Asia, against an adversary whose sex alone could render her an object of
contempt, his
presence restored
obedience to the province of Bithynia, already shaken by the arms and intrigues of Zenobia.
62 Advancing
at the head of his legions, he accepted the submission of Ancyra, and was admitted into Tyana, after an obstinate siege, by the
help of a
perfidious citizen. The generous though fierce temper of Aurelian abandoned the traitor to the rage of the soldiers; a
superstitious reverence induced him to treat with lenity the countrymen of Apollonius the
philosopher.
63 Antioch was
deserted on his approach, till the emperor, by his salutary edicts, recalled the fugitives, and granted a general pardon to all,
who, from necessity rather than choice, had been engaged in the service of the Palmyrenian Queen. The unexpected mildness
of such a conduct reconciled the minds of the Syrians, and as far as the gates of Emesa, the wishes of the people seconded the
terror of his arms.
64
Footnote 62: Zosimus, l. i. p. 44.
Footnote 63: Vopiscus (in Hist. August. p. 217) gives us an authentic letter and a doubtful vision, of Aurelian.
Apollonius of
Tyana was born about the same time as Jesus Christ. His life (that of the former) is related in so fabulous a manner by his
disciples, that we are at a loss to discover whether he was a sage, an impostor, or a fanatic.
Footnote 64: Zosimus, l. i. p. 46.
Zenobia would have ill deserved her reputation, had she indolently permitted the emperor of the West to approach within a
hundred miles of her capital. The fate of the East was decided in two great battles; so similar in almost every circumstance, that
we can scarcely distinguish them from each other, except by observing that the first was fought near
Antioch,
65 and the
second near
Emesa.
66 In both the queen of
Palmyra animated the armies by her presence, and devolved the execution of her
orders on Zabdas, who had already signalized his military talents by the conquest of
Egypt. The numerous forces of Zenobia
consisted for the most part of light archers, and of heavy
cavalry clothed in complete steel. The Moorish and Illyrian horse of
Aurelian were unable to sustain the ponderous charge of their antagonists. They fled in real or affected disorder, engaged the
Palmyrenians in a laborious pursuit, harassed them by a desultory combat, and at length discomfited this impenetrable but
unwieldy body of cavalry. The light
infantry, in the mean time, when they had exhausted their quivers, remaining without
protection against a closer onset, exposed their naked sides to the swords of the legions. Aurelian had chosen these veteran
troops, who were usually stationed on the Upper Danube, and whose valor had been severely tried in the Alemannic war.
67
After the defeat of Emesa, Zenobia found it impossible to collect a third army. As far as the frontier of Egypt, the nations
subject to her empire had joined the standard of the conqueror, who detached Probus, the bravest of his generals, to possess
himself of the Egyptian provinces. Palmyra was the last resource of the widow of Odenathus. She retired within the walls of her
capital, made every preparation for a vigorous resistance, and declared, with the intrepidity of a heroine, that the last moment
of her reign and of her life should be the same.
Footnote 65: At a place called Immae. Eutropius, Sextus Rufus, and Jerome,
mention only this first battle.
Footnote 66: Vopiscus (in Hist. August. p. 217) mentions only the second.
Footnote 67: Zosimus, l. i. p. 44 - 48. His account of the two battles is clear and circumstantial.
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To cite original text:
Gibbon, Edward, 1737-1794.
The history of the decline and fall of the Roman Empire. 1st ed. (London : Printed for W. Strahan ; and T. Cadell, 1776-1788.), pp. 304-310.