Zenobia of Palmyra: the Queen Who Defied Rome
Forgotten Women of History
Zenobia of Palmyra
In the third century CE, as Rome teetered on the brink of fragmentation, a woman from the desert city of Palmyra rose to challenge the empire itself.
Her name was Zenobia — scholar, strategist, queen, and for a brief, extraordinary moment, empress of the East.
Who Zenobia and where was Palmyra?
Palmyra was an oasis between worlds, a crossroads of Roman, Greek, and Arab cultures where caravans from the Silk Road brought wealth and learning.
Born around 240 CE, Zenobia (Bat-Zabbai in her native Aramaic) was educated in philosophy and languages, said to speak Greek, Latin, Aramaic, and Egyptian. Her intellect matched her ambition.
When her husband Odaenathus, the Roman client ruler of Palmyra, was assassinated, Zenobia became regent for her young son, Vaballathus. But she was not content to rule in name only.
Within two years, she expanded her realm across Syria, Arabia, and Egypt, and declared herself ‘Augusta’, a title that placed her on equal footing with the emperor in Rome.
Zenobia’s brief empire was dazzling. She governed with efficiency, patronised scholars, and presided over a court famed for its diversity and refinement. But in 272 CE, the Roman Emperor Aurelian marched east. Zenobia’s army was defeated; she was captured and taken to Rome.
Her fate remains uncertain , with ancient sources differing on whether she died in captivity or lived in quiet exile, but her legacy endures. She remains one of the few women in antiquity to have challenged Rome and nearly won.
Featured Novel: Zenobia: Warrior Queen by Haley Elizabeth Garwood
Zenobia: Warrior Queen by Haley Elizabeth Garwood
Haley Elizabeth Garwood’s Zenobia: Warrior Queen (1997) brings this extraordinary woman vividly to life, blending meticulous historical research with compelling storytelling.
Garwood imagines Zenobia not as a remote legend, but as a woman of flesh and conviction - fierce, proud, and deeply human. From her youth in the sun-baked streets of Palmyra to her rise as a military leader and queen, Zenobia’s journey unfolds against a backdrop of empire, religion, and rebellion.
The novel portrays her as a ruler ahead of her time: a woman who commands armies and intellects alike, yet struggles with the cost of ambition. Garwood does not soften her edges. Zenobia is courageous, sometimes ruthless, always aware that her power rests on fragile alliances and the tolerance of men who underestimate her.
Where many portrayals reduce Zenobia to a tragic exotic, Garwood restores her agency. The novel captures her as both a realist and a visionary, a leader who balances love, loyalty, and strategy while navigating the brutal politics of the Roman world.
Garwood’s prose is rich and direct, evoking the atmosphere of the desert and the marble courts of the empire with equal ease.
The novel is part of Garwood’s Warrior Queens series, which also includes The Forgotten Women of History volumes on Boudica, Cleopatra, and others, a fitting literary counterpart to this blog’s own mission.
Why She Belongs in This ‘Forgotten Women of History’ Series
Zenobia’s story encapsulates what Forgotten Women of History seeks to recover: courage erased, complexity simplified, and power re-cast as rebellion. She was neither Rome’s enemy nor its victim, but something rarer: a ruler who imagined a new balance between East and West, intellect and empire.
Through Zenobia: Warrior Queen, Haley Elizabeth Garwood gives her back her voice; not just as a figure of resistance, but as a woman who ruled with mind and might, whose empire fell, but whose story endures.