ments in endeavoring to console Zenobia and
reconcile her to her fate.

Palmyra surrendered to the conqueror, who seized upon the treasures of
the city, but spared the buildings and the lives of the inhabitants.
Leaving in the place a garrison of Romans, he returned to Europe,
carrying with him Zenobia and her family, who were destined to grace his
triumph.

But scarcely had Aurelian reached the Hellespont, when tidings were
brought to him that the inhabitants of Palmyra had again revolted, and
had put the Roman governor and garrison to the sword. Without a moment's
deliberation the emperor turned back, reached Palmyra by rapid marches,
and took a terrible vengeance on that miserable and devoted city; he
commanded the indiscriminate massacre of all the inhabitants--men,
women, and children; fired its magnificent edifices, and levelled its
walls to the ground. He afterward repented of his fury, and devoted a
part of the captured treasures to reinstate some of the glories he had
destroyed; but it was too late; he could not reanimate the dead, nor
raise from its ruins the stupendous Temple of the Sun. Palmyra became
desolate; its very existence was forgotten, until about a century ago,
when some English travellers discovered it by accident. Thus the blind
fury of one man extinguished life, happiness, industry, art, and
intelligence through a vast extent of country, and severed a link which
had long connected the eastern and western continents of the old world.

When Aurelian returned to Rome after the termination of this war, he
celebrated his triumph with extraordinary pomp. A vast number of
elephants and tigers, and strange beasts from the conquered countries;
sixteen hundred gladiators, an innumerable train of captives, and a
gorgeous display of treasures--gold, silver, gems, plate, glittering
raiment, and Oriental luxuries and rarities, the rich plunder of
Palmyra, were exhibited to the populace. But every eye was fixed on the
beautiful and majestic figure of the Syrian queen, who walked in the
procession before her own sumptuous chariot, attired in her diadem and
royal robes, blazing with jewels, her eyes fixed on the ground, and her
delicate form drooping under the weight of her golden fetters, which
were so heavy that two slaves were obliged to assist in supporting them
on either side; while the Roman populace, at that time the most brutal
and degraded in the whole world, gaped and stared upon her misery, and
sho