Editing Zenobia (section)

==Origin, family and early life==
Palmyrene society was an amalgam of [[Ancient Semitic-speaking peoples|Semitic-speaking peoples]], mostly [[Arabs]] and [[Arameans]], and Zenobia cannot be identified with any one group; as a Palmyrene, she may have had both Arab and Aramean ancestry.{{sfn|Southern|2008|p= [https://books.google.com/books?id=ecfiAAAAQBAJ&pg=PA1 1]}} Information about Zenobia's ancestry and immediate family connections is scarce and contradictory.{{sfn|Bryce|2014|p= [https://books.google.com/books?id=q8Z7AgAAQBAJ&pg=PA297 297]}} Nothing is known about her mother, and her father's identity is debated.{{sfn|Southern|2008|p= [https://books.google.com/books?id=DqMrR29Cc7MC&pg=PA4 4]}} Manichaean sources mention a "Nafsha", sister of the "queen of Palmyra",{{sfn|Southern|2008|p= [https://books.google.com/books?id=DqMrR29Cc7MC&pg=PA4 4]}} but those sources are confused and "Nafsha" may refer to Zenobia herself:{{sfn|Ball|2016|p= [https://books.google.com/books?id=hblTDAAAQBAJ&pg=PA121 121]}} it is doubtful that Zenobia had a sister.{{sfn|Southern|2008|p= [https://books.google.com/books?id=ecfiAAAAQBAJ&pg=PA2 2]}}

Apparently not a commoner,{{sfn|Stoneman|2003|p= [https://books.google.com/books?id=8kLFfE1qPhIC&pg=PA112 112]}} Zenobia would have received an education appropriate for a noble Palmyrene girl.{{sfn|Stoneman|2003|p= [https://books.google.com/books?id=8kLFfE1qPhIC&pg=PA113 113]}} The ''Historia Augusta'' contains details of her early life, although their veracity is dubious; according to the ''Historia Augusta'', the queen's hobby as a child was hunting{{sfn|Stoneman|2003|p= [https://books.google.com/books?id=8kLFfE1qPhIC&pg=PA112 112]}} and, in addition to her Palmyrene Aramaic mother tongue, she was fluent in [[Egyptian language|Egyptian]] and Greek and spoke [[Latin]].{{sfn|Ball|2016|p= [https://books.google.com/books?id=hblTDAAAQBAJ&pg=PA85 85]}}{{sfn|Dodgeon|Lieu|2002|p= [https://books.google.com/books?id=3gGKAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA73 73]}} When she was about fourteen years old (ca. 255), Zenobia became the second wife of [[Odaenathus]], the ''[[rais|ras]]'' ("lord") of Palmyra.{{sfn|Stoneman|2003|p= [https://books.google.com/books?id=8kLFfE1qPhIC&pg=PA112 112]}}{{sfn|Southern|2008|p= [https://books.google.com/books?id=DqMrR29Cc7MC&pg=PA4 4]}} Noble families in Palmyra often intermarried, and it is probable that Zenobia and Odaenathus shared some ancestors.{{sfn|Macurdy|1937|p= [https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015019188914;view=1up;seq=150 126]}}

===Contemporary epigraphical evidence===
Basing their suppositions upon archaeological evidence, various historians have suggested several men as Zenobia's father:
{{Multiple image|align=right|direction=vertical|image1=Palmyra Julius Aurelius Zenobius inscription.jpg|caption1=Inscription at [[Palmyra]] honoring Julius Aurelius Zenobius, believed by some to be Zenobia's father}}
Julius Aurelius Zenobius appears on a Palmyrene inscription as a [[strategos]] of Palmyra in 231–232; based on the similarity of the names,{{sfn|Southern|2008|p= [https://books.google.com/books?id=DqMrR29Cc7MC&pg=PA4 4]}} Zenobius was suggested as Zenobia's father by the [[Numismatist (specialist)|numismatist]] [[:de:Alfred von Sallet|Alfred von Sallet]] and others.{{sfn|Hartmann|2001|p= [https://books.google.com/books?id=BdcHK8Ll1jMC&pg=PA117 117]}} The archaeologist [[William Waddington]] argued in favor of Zenobius' identification as the father, assuming that his statue stood opposite to where the statue of the queen stood in [[Great Colonnade at Palmyra|Great Colonnade]]. However, the linguist [[Jean-Baptiste Chabot]] pointed out that Zenobius' statue stood opposite to that of Odaenathus not Zenobia and rejected Waddington's hypothesis.{{sfn|Macurdy|1937|p= [https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015019188914;view=1up;seq=150 126]}} The only ''gentilicium'', a hereditary name borne by people that was originally the name of one's gens (family or clan) by patrilineal descent, appearing on Zenobia's inscriptions was "Septimia" (not "Julia Aurelia", which she would have borne if her father's ''gentilicium'' was Aurelius),{{sfn|Sartre|2005|p= [https://books.google.com/books?id=9y7nTpFcN3AC&pg=PA551 551]}} and it cannot be proven that the queen changed her ''gentilicium'' to Septimia after her marriage.{{#tag:ref|Both Dittenberger and von Sallet believed that Zenobia bore the ''gentilicium'' Julia Aurelia during her marriage and took the ''gentilicium'' Septimia after Odaenathus' death; von Sallet argued that the coins minted by Vaballathus in Alexandria bore the initials of the names "Julius", "Aurelius" and "Septimius", before his own name.{{sfn|Macurdy|1937|p= [https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015019188914;view=1up;seq=149 125]}} Therefore, it is apparent that Vaballathus took his maternal family's name beside his paternal one.{{sfn|Macurdy|1937|p= [https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015019188914;view=1up;seq=150 126]}}|group=note}}{{sfn|Southern|2008|p= [https://books.google.com/books?id=DqMrR29Cc7MC&pg=PA4 4]}}{{sfn|Hartmann|2001|p= [https://books.google.com/books?id=BdcHK8Ll1jMC&pg=PA117 117]}}

One of Zenobia's inscriptions recorded her as "Septimia Bat-Zabbai, daughter of Antiochus".{{sfn|Dodgeon|Lieu|2002|p= [https://books.google.com/books?id=tgCKAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA371 371]}}{{sfn|Ando|2012|p= [https://books.google.com/books?id=2fTcCQAAQBAJ&pg=PA209 209]}} Antiochus' identity is not definitively known:{{sfn|Bryce|2014|p= [https://books.google.com/books?id=q8Z7AgAAQBAJ&pg=PA297 297]}} his ancestry is not recorded in Palmyrene inscriptions, and the name was not common in Palmyra.{{sfn|Southern|2008|p= [https://books.google.com/books?id=DqMrR29Cc7MC&pg=PA5 5]}} This, combined with the meaning of Zenobia's Palmyrene name (daughter of Zabbai), led scholars such as [[:de:Harald Ingholt|Harald Ingholt]] to speculate that Antiochus might have been a distant ancestor: the [[List of Seleucid rulers|Seleucid]] king [[Antiochus IV Epiphanes]] or [[Antiochus VII Sidetes]], whose wife was the [[Ptolemaic dynasty|Ptolemaic]] [[Cleopatra Thea]].{{sfn|Dodgeon|Lieu|2002|p= [https://books.google.com/books?id=tgCKAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA371 371]}}{{sfn|Southern|2008|p= [https://books.google.com/books?id=DqMrR29Cc7MC&pg=PA5 5]}} In the historian [[Richard Stoneman]]'s view, Zenobia would not have created an obscure ancestry to connect herself with the ancient [[Ancient Macedonians|Macedonian]] rulers: if a fabricated ancestry were needed, a more direct connection would have been invented.{{sfn|Stoneman|2003|p= [https://books.google.com/books?id=8kLFfE1qPhIC&pg=PA112 112]}} According to Stoneman, Zenobia "had reason to believe [her Seleucid ancestry] to be true".{{sfn|Stoneman|2003|p= [https://books.google.com/books?id=8kLFfE1qPhIC&pg=PA112 112]}} The historian [[Pat Southern|Patricia Southern]], noting that Antiochus was mentioned without a royal title or a hint of great lineage, believes that he was a direct ancestor or a relative rather than a Seleucid king who lived three centuries before Zenobia.{{sfn|Southern|2008|p= [https://books.google.com/books?id=DqMrR29Cc7MC&pg=PA5 5]}}

On the basis of Zenobia's Palmyrene name, Bat Zabbai, her father may have been called Zabbai; alternatively, Zabbai may have been the name of a more distant ancestor.{{sfn|Bryce|2014|p= [https://books.google.com/books?id=q8Z7AgAAQBAJ&pg=PA297 297]}} The historian [[Trevor R. Bryce|Trevor Bryce]] suggests that she was related to [[Septimius Zabbai]], Palmyra's garrison leader, and he may even have been her father.{{sfn|Bryce|2014|p= [https://books.google.com/books?id=q8Z7AgAAQBAJ&pg=PA297 297]}} The archaeologist [[Charles Simon Clermont-Ganneau]], attempting to reconcile the meaning of the name "Bat Zabbai" with the inscription mentioning the queen as daughter of Antiochus, suggested that two brothers, Zabbai and Antiochus, existed, with a childless Zabbai dying and leaving his widow to marry his brother Antiochus. Thus, since Zenobia was born out of a [[levirate marriage]], she was theoretically the daughter of Zabbai, hence the name.{{sfn|Macurdy|1937|p= [https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015019188914;view=1up;seq=151 127]}}

{{anchor|In ancient sources}}

===Ancient sources===
In the ''Historia Augusta'', Zenobia is said to have been a descendant of [[Cleopatra]] and claimed descent from the Ptolemies.{{#tag:ref|The writer of the ''Historia Augusta'' might have based his account on the work of [[Ammianus Marcellinus]], who wrote about the habits of men in "vaulted baths" and how they extol women "with such disgraceful flattery as the [[Parthia]]ns do [[Semiramis]], the Egyptians their Cleopatras, the [[Carians]] [do] [[Artemisia II of Caria|Artemisia]], or the people of Palmyra [do] Zenobia".{{sfn|Teixidor|2005|p= [https://books.google.com/books?id=oZcr7SzzVYYC&pg=PA201 201]}} If the ''Historia Augusta'' writer did indeed use the words of Ammianus, then the remark about Zenobia's supposed descent loses its merit.{{sfn|Teixidor|2005|p= [https://books.google.com/books?id=oZcr7SzzVYYC&pg=PA201 201]}}|group=note}}{{sfn|Teixidor|2005|p= [https://books.google.com/books?id=oZcr7SzzVYYC&pg=PA201 201]}} According to the ''[[Suda|Souda]]'', a 10th-century [[Byzantine Empire|Byzantine]] encyclopedia,{{sfn|Teixidor|2005|p= [https://books.google.com/books?id=oZcr7SzzVYYC&pg=PA206 206]}} after the Palmyrene conquest of Egypt,{{sfn|Southern|2008|p= [https://books.google.com/books?id=DqMrR29Cc7MC&pg=PA97 97]}} the sophist [[Callinicus (Sophist)|Callinicus of Petra]] wrote a ten-volume history of [[Alexandria]] dedicated to Cleopatra.{{sfn|Potter|2014|p= [https://books.google.com/books?id=7HKFAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA263 263]}} According to modern scholars, by Cleopatra Callinicus meant Zenobia.{{#tag:ref|The conclusion that Callinicus meant Zenobia is based on the fact that the work was written following Palmyra's invasion of Egypt, combined with what is known about Zenobia's alleged claims of descent from Cleopatra.{{sfn|Southern|2008|p= [https://books.google.com/books?id=DqMrR29Cc7MC&pg=PA97 97]}} The first scholar to suggest that, by Cleopatra, Callinicus meant Zenobia was [[Aurel Stein]], in 1923, and his view was accepted by many other historians.{{sfn|Southern|2008|p= [https://books.google.com/books?id=wnTOBAAAQBAJ&pg=PA188 188]}}|group=note}}{{sfn|Potter|2014|p= [https://books.google.com/books?id=7HKFAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA263 263]}}{{sfn|Watson|2004|p= [https://books.google.com/books?id=kJ2JAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA65 65]}} Apart from legends, there is no direct evidence in Egyptian coinage or [[List of ancient Egyptian papyri|papyri]] of a contemporary [[conflation]] of Zenobia with Cleopatra.{{sfn|Southern|2008|p= [https://books.google.com/books?id=wnTOBAAAQBAJ&pg=PA190 190]}} The connection may have been invented by Zenobia's enemies to discredit her,{{#tag:ref|The Roman view of Cleopatra was negative; she was portrayed as a traitorous manipulative woman who used her beauty and sex to achieve her goals.{{sfn|Burstein|2007|p= [https://books.google.com/books?id=KSonyiReFY8C&pg=PA68 68]}}|group=note}}{{sfn|Southern|2008|p= [https://books.google.com/books?id=DqMrR29Cc7MC&pg=PA116 116]}} but circumstantial evidence indicates that Zenobia herself made the claim; an imperial declaration once ascribed to Emperor [[Severus Alexander]] (died 235) was probably made by Zenobia in the name of her son [[Vaballathus]], where the king named Alexandria "my ancestral city", which indicates a claim to Ptolemaic ancestry.{{sfn|Bennett|2003|p=317}}{{sfn|Parsons|1967|p=378}} Zenobia's alleged claim of a connection to Cleopatra seems to have been politically motivated,{{sfn|Southern|2008|p= [https://books.google.com/books?id=ecfiAAAAQBAJ&pg=PA1 1]}} since it would have given her a connection with Egypt and made her a legitimate successor to the Ptolemies' throne.{{sfn|Southern|2008|p= [https://books.google.com/books?id=wnTOBAAAQBAJ&pg=PA93 93]}} A relationship between Zenobia and the Ptolemies is unlikely,{{sfn|Bryce|2014|p= [https://books.google.com/books?id=41-MAgAAQBAJ&pg=RA1-PR25 298]}} and attempts by classical sources to trace the queen's ancestry to the Ptolemies through the Seleucids are [[apocrypha]]l.{{sfn|Ball|2002|p= [https://books.google.com/books?id=qQKIAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA78 78]}}

====Arab traditions and al-Zabba'====
Although some Arab historians linked Zenobia to the [[Queen of Sheba]], their accounts are apocryphal.{{sfn|Ball|2002|p= [https://books.google.com/books?id=qQKIAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA78 78]}} Medieval Arabic traditions identify a queen of Palmyra named al-Zabba',{{sfn|Rihan|2014|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=1iGpAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA28 28]}} and her most romantic account comes from al-Tabari.{{sfn|Bryce|2014|p= [https://books.google.com/books?id=q8Z7AgAAQBAJ&pg=PA295 295]}} According to al-Tabari, she was an [[Amalek#Arabs as Amalekites|Amalekite]]; her father was 'Amr ibn Zarib, an 'Amālīq [[sheikh]] who was killed by the [[Tanukhids]].{{sfn|Ball|2002|p= [https://books.google.com/books?id=qQKIAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA78 78]}} Al-Tabari identifies a sister of al-Zabba' as "Zabibah".{{sfn|Ball|2002|p= [https://books.google.com/books?id=qQKIAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA78 78]}} Jadhimah ibn Malik, the Tanukhid king who killed the queen's father, was killed by al-Zabba'.{{sfn|Bryce|2014|p= [https://books.google.com/books?id=q8Z7AgAAQBAJ&pg=PA295 295]}} According to al-Tabari, al-Zabba' had a fortress along the [[Euphrates]] and ruled Palmyra.{{sfn|Millar|1993|p= [https://books.google.com/books?id=IA-YlZqHv90C&pg=PA433 433]}}

Al-Tabari's account does not mention the Romans, Odaenathus, Vaballathus or the Sassanians;{{sfn|Millar|1993|p= [https://books.google.com/books?id=IA-YlZqHv90C&pg=PA433 433]}} focusing on the tribes and their relations, it is immersed in legends.{{sfn|Southern|2008|p= [https://books.google.com/books?id=DqMrR29Cc7MC&pg=PA12 12]}} Although the account is certainly based on the story of Zenobia,{{sfn|Millar|1993|p= [https://books.google.com/books?id=IA-YlZqHv90C&pg=PA433 433]}} it is probably conflated with the story of a semi-legendary nomadic Arab queen (or queens).{{sfn|Bryce|2014|p= [https://books.google.com/books?id=q8Z7AgAAQBAJ&pg=PA296 296]}}{{sfn|Southern|2008|p= [https://books.google.com/books?id=DqMrR29Cc7MC&pg=PA12 12]}} Al-Zabba'{{'s}} fortress was probably [[Halabiye]], which was restored by the historic Palmyrene queen and named Zenobia.{{sfn|Millar|1993|p= [https://books.google.com/books?id=IA-YlZqHv90C&pg=PA433 433]}}