Born in around 240 CE to an aristocratic Palmyrene family, Zenobia (her name may have been Bat-Zabbai or Na’ilah in her own language) married Septimius Odenathus at the age of 17 or 18. He was an important local aristocrat, an experienced general and the military commander of Palmyra. Odenathus was already a widower and had a son, Septimius Hairan (or Haeranes) Herodianus, by his first marriage. Zenobia would also give Odenathus a son, Septimius Vaballathus, born between 258 and 260 CE; there may also have been more sons, Septimius Antiochus, Herennianus, Timolaus and possibly another Hairan. We are also told of two daughters. Although no known statue or likeness of Zenobia can be identified with confidence, her portrait survives on coins and she was renowned for her beauty, wit and education. Despite the fact she became an enemy of Rome, the sources, especially the historian Zosimus and the Historia Augusta, record a complex and nuanced picture of her life.
ROME IN CRISIS
The position Odenathus occupied seems to have been a new one and may reflect the precarious position of Rome in the 3rd century. Since around 235 CE the Roman Empire had experienced enormous upheavals as the
