Zenobia
3 of the 6 encyclopedias on this shelf carry an entry for Zenobia. All 3 are reproduced below, so you can see where they agree and where they differ.
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
a Queen of Palmyra, who succeeded to the throne as regent for her sons on the murder of her husband Odenathus, A. D. 266. Not content, however, with the independence granted by the indolent Emperor Gallienus and his successor, Claudius, she aimed at a dominion which should include Egypt, Syria, and Asia Minor, and make good her vaunted title of Queen of the East. The accession of Aurelian, however, in 270, once more placed a soldier at the head of the Roman empire, and in 273 the armies of Zenobia were defeated in two pitched battles, while Palmyra was taken and its queen made prisoner. According to Zosimus she died on her way to Rome, but according to Trebellius Pollio, whose narrative is much more particular, she was led in triumph through Rome in the train of Aurelian, and was afterward presented by her conqueror with a villa at Tibur, where she passed the remainder of her life with her sons after the manner of a Roman matron. Zenobia was one of the most remarkable women of antiquity. She resembled Cleopatra in her talents and her personal fascination, and she far surpassed her in purity and elevation of character. "She is," says Gibbon, "perhaps the only female whose superior genius has broken through the servile indolence imposed on her sex by the climate and manners of Asia."
Aiton's Encyclopedia (1910)
queen of Palmyra. She died about 274 or later. She was educated by a celebrated Greek scholar, Longinus, and was able to speak the Latin, Greek, Coptic, and Syrian languages. She was the wife of the king of Palmyra. She accompanied her husband in war and the chase and stimulated him to wage war on the Persians. At her husband's death in 267 she assumed the crown, styling herself Queen of the East. For a time she was regarded favorably by the Romans as an eastern bulwark of the empire, but, on the accession of the energetic and despotic Aurelian to the imperial throne, Roman thirst for conquest led to a declaration of war against Zenobia. She defended herself bravely, but lost the battles of Antioch and Emesa. After defending the walls of Palmyra until resistance was vain, she fled as far as the Euphrates, but was pursued by the Romans, captured, taken to Rome, and forced to walk in the triumphal procession of the victorious Aurelian. Her wit and beauty won her friends. She was accepted in Roman society. Her daughters grew up and married into leading Roman families. The date and manner of her death are not recorded. See Palmyra
1000 Classical Characters (1900)
A celebrated princess of Palmyra , the wife of Odenatus . After her husband's death the Roman emperor Aurelian declared war against her. She took the field with seven hundred thousand men, and though at first successful, she was eventually conquered. Aurelian, when she became his prisoner, treated her with great humanity and consideration. She was admired for her literary talents as well as her military abilities.
What Has Changed in the Last Century
The narrative outline in these accounts still stands, but its foundations have shifted. Collier's in 1921 treated "Trebellius Pollio" as the more particular authority; scholars now agree the Historia Augusta was written by a single anonymous author in the late fourth century and is riddled with invention, which is why the "seven hundred thousand men" of 1000 Classical Characters and even Longinus as Zenobia's tutor are treated with caution. Coins and inscriptions have tightened the chronology: Aurelian took Palmyra in 272 and razed it after a second revolt in 273, rather than the single 273 campaign Collier's describes, and Zenobia's end remains as unrecorded as Aiton's noted in 1910. The city itself has fared worse than her reputation: Palmyra's ruins were seized by Islamic State in 2015, which blew up the Temple of Bel, the Temple of Baalshamin and the monumental arch and murdered the site's veteran archaeologist Khaled al-Asaad.
Written for this edition, 2026.