usual to exercise the pupils by questions on the great epio poet, and for them to give their answers to the professor in writing. Trebonins (18) As long as Odenathus lived, the victories of the Palmyrenes were always over the enemies of Rome; but on the assassination of himself and his son Herodes, though the armies of Palmyra were still led to battle with equal courage, its counsels were no longer guided with the same moderation. Zenobia, the widow of Odenathus, seized the command of the army for herself and her infant sons Herennius and Timolaus; and her masculine courage and stern virtues well qualified her for the bold task that she had undertaken. She threw off the friendship of Rome, and routed the armies which Gallienus sent against her; and claiming to be descended from Cleopatra, she marched upon Egypt to seize the throne of her ancestors, and to add that kingdom to Syria and Asia Minor, which she already possessed. A.D. 268. Tr. Pollio, lib. i. (19) It was in the last year of the reign of Gallienus that Zenobia, the queen of Palmyra, sent an army Vit. Claudii. against Egypt. It was led by her general Zabda, Zosimus, who was joined by an Egyptian named Timogenes; and, with seventy thousand Palmyrenes, Syrians, and other barbarians, they routed the Roman army of fifty thousand Egyptians under Probatus. The unfortunate Roman general put an end to his own life; but nevertheless the Palmyrenes were unsuccessful, and Egypt followed the example of Rome and took the oaths to CLAUDIUS. For three years the coins of Alexandria bear the name of that emperor. A.D. 268. Zoega, Numi Egypt. (20) On the death of Claudius, his brother QUINTILLUS Fr. Pollio. assumed the purple in Europe; and though he only A.D. 270. reigned for seventeen days the Alexandrian moneyers found time to engrave dies and to coin money in his name. (21) On the death of Claudius also, the Palmyrenes renewed their attacks upon Egypt, and this second time with Zoega, on Numi Ægypt. success. The whole kingdom acknowledged ZENOBIA as their and in the fourth and fifth years queen; of her reign in Palmyra we find her name the Alexandrian coins (see Fig. 113). The Greeks, who had been masters of Egypt for six hundred years, ever since the time of Alexander the Great, either in their own name or in that of the Roman emperors, were then for the first time governed by an Asiatic. Palmyra in the desert was then ornamented with the spoils of Egypt; and travellers yet admire the remains of eight large columns of red porphyry, each thirty feet high, which stood in front of the two gates to the great temple. They speak for themselves, and tell their own history. From their material and form and size we must suppose that these columns were quarried between Thebes and the Red Sea, were cut into shape by Egyptian workmen under the guidance of Greek artists in the service of the Roman emperors; and were thence carried DA Fig. 113. away by the Syrian queen to the oasis-city in the desert between Damascus and Babylon. (22) Zenobia was a handsome woman of a dark complexion, with an aquiline nose, quick piercing eyes, Tr. Pollio, and a masculine voice. She had the command- Vit. Zeno biæ. ing qualities of Cleopatra, from whom her flatterers traced her descent, and she was without her vices. She could not speak so many languages as flattery had attributed to that fascinating queen; but while Syriac was her native tongue, she was not ignorant of Latin, which she was careful to have taught to her children; she carried on her government in Greek, and could speak Coptic with the Egyptians, whose history she had studied and written upon. In her dress and manners she joined the pomp of the Persian court to the self-denial and military virtues of a camp. With these qualities, followed by a success in arms which they seemed to deserve, the world could not help remarking, that while Gallienus was wasting his time with fiddlers and players, in idleness that would have disgraced a woman, Zenobia was governing her half of the empire like a man. (23) Zenobia made Antioch and Palmyra the capitals of her empire, and Egypt became for the time a province of Syria. Her religion like her language was Syriac. The name of her husband, Odenathus, means the Desire of the goddess Adoneth, and that of her son Vaballathus means the Desire of the goddess Baleth. But as her troops were many of them Saracens or Arabs, a people nearly the same as the Blemmyes, who already formed part of the people of Upper Egypt, this conquest gave a new rank to that part of the population, and made them less quiet thereafter in their slavery to the Greeks of Alexandria. Fl. Vo piscus, in (24) But the sceptre of Rome had lately been grasped by the firmer hand of AURELIAN, and the reign of Zenobia drew to a close. Aurelian at first granted her the title Zoega, Numi of his colleague in the empire, and we find AlexEgypt. andrian coins with her head on one side and his on the other. But he lost no time in leading his Vit. Aure- forces into Syria, and, after routing Zenobia's army in one or two battles, he took her prisoner at Emessa. He then led her to Rome, where, after being made the ornament of his triumph, she was allowed to spend tho rest of her days in quiet, having reigned for four years in Palmyra, though only for a few months in Egypt. liani. Zoega, (25) On the defeat of Zenobia it would seem that Egypt and Syria were still left under the government of one of her sons, with the title of colleague of Aurelian. The Alexandrian coins are then dated in the first year Egypt. of Aurelian and the fourth of VABALLATHUS, or, according to the Greek translation of this name, of ATHENODORUS, who counted his years from the death of Odenathus (see Fig. 114). A.D. 270. (26) The young Herodes, who had been killed with his father Odenathus, was not the son of Zenobia, but Tr. Pollio, of a former wife, and Zenobia always acted towards him with the unkindness unfortunately too common in a stepmother. She had claimed the throne for her infant Vit. Herod. sons Herennius and Timolaus; and we are left in doubt by the historians about Vaballathus; Vopiscus, who Fl. Vopiscalls him the son of Zenobia, does not tell us who cus, in Vit. was his father. We know but little of him beyond his coins; but from these we learn that, after reigning one Aureliani. Fig. 114. year with Aurelian, he aimed at reigning alone, took the title of Augustus, and dropped the name of Aurelian from his coins. This step was most likely the cause of his overthrow and death, which happened in the A.D. 271. same year. (27) On the overthrow of Zenobia's family, Egypt, which had been so fruitful in rebels, submitted to the Emperor Aurelian, but it was only for a few months. The Greeks of Alexandria, now lessened in numbers, were found to be no longer masters of the kingdom. Former rebellions in Egypt had been caused by the two Roman legions and the Greek mercenaries sometimes claiming the right to appoint an emperor to the Roman world; but Zenobia's conquest had raised the Egyptian and Arab population in their own opinion, and they were no longer willing to be governed by an Alexandrian or European inaster. They set up Fl. VopisFirmus, a Syrian, a native of Seleucia, who took the cus, in Vit. title of emperor; and resting his power on that part of the population that had been treated as slaves or barbarians for six hundred years, he aimed at the conquest of Alexandria. Firmi. A.D. 272. (28) Firmus was a man of great size and bodily strength, and of coarse, barbarian manners. He had gained great wealth by trading to India; and had a paper trade so profitable that he used to boast that he could feed an army on papyrus and glue. His house was furnished with glass windows, a luxury then but little known, and the squares of glass were Zoega, fastened into the frames by means of bitumen. His chief strength was in the Arabs or Blemmyes of Upper Egypt, and in the Saracens who had lately been fighting against Vopiscus, Rome under the standard of Zenobia. Firmus Vit. Probi. fixed his government at Coptos and Ptolemais, and held all Upper Egypt; but he either never conquered Alexandria, or did not hold it for many months, Numi as for every year that he reigned in the Thebaid Ægypt. we find Alexandrian coins bearing the name of Aurelian. Firmus was at last conquered by Aurelian in person, who took him prisoner, and had him tortured and then put to death. During these troubles Rome had been thrown into alarm at the thoughts of losing the usual supply of Egyptian corn, as since the reign of Elagabalus the Roman granaries had never held more than was wanted for the year; but Aurelian hastened to write word to the Roman people that the country was again quiet, and that the yearly supplies which had been delayed by the wickedness of Firmus would soon arrive safe. Had Firmus raised the Roman legions in rebellion, he would have been honoured with the title of a rebel emperor; but, as his power rested on the Egyptians and Arabs, Aurelian only boasted that he had rid the world of a robber. Zosimus, lib. i. 49. Zoega, year in (29) Another rebel emperor about this time was Domitius Domitianus; but we have no certain knowledge of the year in which he rebelled, nor, indeed, without the help of the coins, should we know in what province of the whole Roman empire he had assumed the purple. The historian only tells us that in the reign of Aurelian the general Domitianus was put to death, for aiming at a change. We learn, however, from the coins, that Egypt. he reigned for parts of a first and a second Numism. Egypt; but the subject of his reign is not without Pembroch. its difficulties, as we find Alexandrian coins of Domitianus with Latin inscriptions, and dated in the third year of his reign (see Fig. 115). The Latin language had not at this time been used on the coins of Alexandria; and he could not have held Alexandria for any one whole year, as the series of Aurelian's coins is not broken. It is possible that the Latin coins of Domitianus may belong to a second and later usurper of the same name. |