The Chronicle of Zenobia - The Rebel Queen

Judith Weingarten

Vanguard Press

2006

400 páginas

13h 20m

ISBN-10: 1843862190

It is Roman-Syria in the 3rd-century AD and the fate of the Roman Empire hangs in the balance.

When Simon, a brilliant young man blessed with a perfect memory, becomes friend and advisor to Odenathus, the great warrior-king of Palmyra, the city’s gamble with destiny unfolds. The first signs of the terrible turmoil that will befall the East are already visible. The Persian King of Kings sets out to conquer Roman Mesopotamia. Rome itself is in the grip of violent disorders and the Empire on the brink of civil war. Law and order is collapsing. One Emperor after another another falls to the assassin’s knife. Almost alone, Palmyra must defend itself: the Roman presence in Syria is all but non-existent.
During these events, Odenathus marries his cousin, the beautiful and clever Zenobia, behind whose beautiful dark eyes, he discovers, is a will of iron. Through the ups and downs of a stormy marriage, she struggles to turn herself from a wife into a queen. With Simon as her closest friend, she becomes a force to be reckoned with in the affairs of the city – and soon a power in all Syria. When Odenathus is poisoned, she seizes the regency on behalf of her son, and becomes the ruler of all the East. Her armies sweep into Egypt and she is hailed as ‘the New Cleopatra.’