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Hello, in this history of the decline fall of the Roman Empire, Edward Gibbon wrote,

modern Europe has produced several illustrious women who have sustained with glory the weight

of empire, but Zanobia is perhaps the only female who superior genius broke through

the servile indolence imposed on her sex by the climate and manners of Asia.

She equaled in beauty her ancestor Cleopatra and far surpassed that princess in Chastity

and Valla.

Zanobia was a warrior queen who ruled the ancient city of Palmara in Syria.

In the 3rd century AD she led a rebellion against the Roman Empire, conquered Egypt and

briefly ruled a substantial empire of her own.

Her reign lasted only a few years before her defeat and captured by the Emperor Orelian,

but she left a lasting impression on historians and later writers.

The ruins of her capital, Palmara survived today in a region of Syria ravaged by today's

civil wars.

We meet to discuss Queen Zanobia, Edith Hall, Professor of Classics at King's College

London, Kate Cooper, Professor of Ancient History at the University of Manchester and

Richard Sternman, on revisiting Professor in the Department of Classics and Ancient

History at the University of Exeter.

Edith Hall, can you give us a quick summary of Zanobia, who she was, why she was?

Yes.

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