heir 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.

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. 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 offense 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, 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.

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.
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 Odenath