January
01
/ 2015
In 30 BC, the last active Ptolemaic queen of Egypt, Cleopatra VII, was dead. According to the written sources, she committed suicide by holding a poisonous snake to her breast, so as to avoid being paraded in Rome by the victorious Octavian (known as Augustus after 27 BC), although this account is also disputed. The humiliation of being paraded by the conquering Romans was a fate that befell another ‘Eastern’ queen three centuries after the death of Cleopatra. According to the Historia Augusta, the Palymerene queen, Zenobia was captured by the emperor Aurelian and paraded through the streets of Rome in gold chains and jewellery during his triumph parade. Who was this Zenobia, and why was she treated by the
