Editing Zenobia (section)

====Consolidation of power====
The Palmyrene monarchy was new; allegiance was based on loyalty to Odaenathus, making the transfer of power to a successor more difficult than it would have been in an established monarchy.{{sfn|Watson|2004|p= [https://books.google.com/books?id=kJ2JAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA59 59]}} Odaenathus tried to ensure the dynasty's future by crowning his eldest son co-king, but both were assassinated.{{sfn|Watson|2004|p= [https://books.google.com/books?id=kJ2JAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA60 60]}} Zenobia, left to secure the Palmyrene succession and retain the loyalty of its subjects, emphasized the continuity between her late husband and his successor (her son).{{sfn|Watson|2004|p= [https://books.google.com/books?id=kJ2JAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA60 60]}} Vaballathus (with Zenobia orchestrating the process) assumed his father's royal titles immediately, and his earliest known inscription records him as King of Kings.{{sfn|Watson|2004|p= [https://books.google.com/books?id=kJ2JAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA60 60]}}{{sfn|Southern|2008|p= [https://books.google.com/books?id=DqMrR29Cc7MC&pg=PA84 84]}}

[[Image:Odaenathus Kingdom.png|thumb|alt=Color-coded map of the ancient Near East|Roman regions under Odaenathus (yellow) and the Palmyrene kingdom (green)]]
Odaenathus controlled a large area of the Roman East,{{#tag:ref|The Roman East traditionally included all the Roman lands in Asia east of the [[Bosphorus]].{{sfn|Ball|2002|p= [https://books.google.com/books?id=73-JAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA6 6]}}|group=note}} and held the highest political and military authority in the region, superseding that of the Roman provincial governors.{{sfn|Young|2003|p= [https://books.google.com/books?id=E5yCAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA215 215]}}{{sfn|Goldsworthy|2009|p= [https://books.google.com/books?id=muVoB0O_XXMC&pg=PT61 61]}} His self-created status was formalized by Emperor Gallienus,{{sfn|Vervaet|2007|p= [https://books.google.com/books?id=nG-S-X_uI6EC&pg=PA137 137]}} who had little choice but to acquiesce.{{sfn|Young|2003|p= [https://books.google.com/books?id=E5yCAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA214 214]}} Odaenathus's power relative to that of the emperor and the central authority was unprecedented and elastic, but relations remained smooth until his death.{{sfn|Ando|2012|p= [https://books.google.com/books?id=2fTcCQAAQBAJ&pg=PA172 172]}} His assassination meant that the Palmyrene rulers' authority and position had to be clarified, which led to a conflict over their interpretation.{{sfn|Ando|2012|p= [https://books.google.com/books?id=2fTcCQAAQBAJ&pg=PA172 172]}} The Roman court viewed Odaenathus as an appointed Roman official who derived his power from the emperor, but the Palmyrene court saw his position as hereditary.{{sfn|Ando|2012|p= [https://books.google.com/books?id=2fTcCQAAQBAJ&pg=PA172 172]}} This conflict was the first step on the road to war between Rome and Palmyra.{{sfn|Ando|2012|p= [https://books.google.com/books?id=2fTcCQAAQBAJ&pg=PA172 172]}}

Odaenathus' Roman titles, such as ''[[dux]] Romanorum'', ''corrector totius orientis'' and ''[[imperator]] totius orientis'' differed from his royal eastern ones because the Roman ranks were not hereditary.{{sfn|Kulikowski|2016|p= [https://books.google.com/books?id=XZokDAAAQBAJ&pg=PT158 158]}} Vaballathus had a legitimate claim to his royal titles, but had no right to the Roman ones—especially ''corrector'' (denoting a senior military and provincial commander in the Roman system), which Zenobia used for her son in his earliest known inscriptions with "King of Kings".{{sfn|Watson|2004|p= [https://books.google.com/books?id=kJ2JAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA60 60]}} Although the Roman emperors accepted the royal succession, the assumption of Roman military rank antagonized the empire.{{sfn|Andrade|2013|p= [https://books.google.com/books?id=4ROhAQAAQBAJ&pg=PT423 333]}} Emperor Gallienus may have decided to intervene in an attempt to regain central authority;{{sfn|Ando|2012|p= [https://books.google.com/books?id=2fTcCQAAQBAJ&pg=PA209 209]}} according to the ''Historia Augusta'', [[praetorian prefect]] [[Aurelius Heraclianus]] was dispatched to assert imperial authority over the east and was repelled by the [[Palmyrene army]].{{sfn|Potter|2014|p= [https://books.google.com/books?id=7HKFAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA262 262]}} The account is doubtful, however, since Heraclianus participated in Gallienus' assassination in 268.{{sfn|Southern|2015|p= [https://books.google.com/books?id=2p9hCQAAQBAJ&pg=PA150 150]}} Odaenathus was assassinated shortly before the emperor, and Heraclianus would have been unable to be sent to the East, fight the Palmyrenes and return to the West in time to become involved in the conspiracy against the emperor.{{#tag:ref|A plausible scenario, according to the historian [[David Stone Potter|David Potter]], would be that a campaign was sent in 270 by [[Claudius Gothicus]], Gallienus' successor.{{sfn|Potter|2014|p= [https://books.google.com/books?id=7HKFAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA262 262]}}|group=note}}{{sfn|Southern|2015|p= [https://books.google.com/books?id=2p9hCQAAQBAJ&pg=PA150 150]}}