Zenobia - Rome

Rome

Zenobia and Vaballathus were taken as hostages to Rome by Aurelian. Vaballathus is presumed to have died on his way to Rome. In 274, Zenobia reportedly appeared in golden chains in Aurelian’s military triumph parade in Rome, in the presence of the senator Marcellus Petrus Nutenus. There are competing accounts of Zenobia's own fate: some versions suggest that she died relatively soon after her arrival in Rome, whether through illness, hunger strike, or beheading. The happiest narrative, though, relates that Aurelian, impressed by her beauty and dignity and out of a desire for clemency, freed Zenobia and granted her an elegant villa in Tibur (modern Tivoli, Italy). She supposedly lived in luxury and became a prominent philosopher, socialite and Roman matron. Zenobia is said to have married a Roman governor and senator whose name is unknown, though there is reason to think it may have been Marcellus Petrus Nutenus. They reportedly had several daughters, whose names are also unknown, but who are reported to have married into Roman noble families. She is said to have had further descendants surviving into the 4th and 5th centuries. Evidence in support of there being descendants of Zenobia is offered by a name in an inscription found in Rome: the name of L. Septimia Patavinia Balbilla Tyria Nepotilla Odaenathiania incorporates the names of Zenobia's first husband and son and may be suggestive of a possible family relationship (after the deaths of Odaenathus and his sons, Odaenathus had no descendants). Another possible descendant of Zenobia is Saint Zenobius of Florence, a Christian bishop who lived in the 5th century.