812 ZENO ZENOBIA chasing the aid of an opposing party among the Goths, one of whose chieftains, afterward Theodoric the Great, was made consul in 484, after which Illus revolted, was defeated, and put to death in 488. Having quarrelled with Theodoric, Zeno, anxious to save himself and his capital, proposed to him the invasion of Italy which resulted in the foundation of a Gothic kingdom in that country. The bloody disputes between the Monophysites and the orthodox began under Zeno's reign. (See BY- ZANTINE EMPIRE.) It is said that his wife had him buried alive while he was drunk. He left no children, and was succeeded by Anastasius. ZENO, ipostolo, an Italian poet, born in Ven- ice, Dec. 11, 1668, died there, Nov. 11, 1750. He wrote many successful dramas and fur- nished librettos for several operas ; founded in 1710 the Giornale de 1 Ictterati (Vltalia, which still exists; went to Vienna in 1715 on the in- vitation of Charles VI., and was appointed court poet and historiographer. He retired in 1729, recommending Motastasio as his succes- sor, and returned to Venice on a pension. His dramatic works were published collectively in 1744 (10 vols., Venice) and in 1795 (12 vols., Turin). He also wrote the life of Davila and other biographies; Istorici delle cose veneziane (10 vols., Venice, 1718-'22) ; Dmertazioni is- torico-critiche e letterarie agli istorici italiani (2 vols., Venice 1752-'3) ; and Epistole (3 vols., 1752; 2d ed., enlarged, G vols., 1785). ZENO, Nicolo and Antonio, two Italian naviga- tors, born about the middle of the 14th century. They were members of one of the noblest Ve- netian families, and brothers of Carlo Zeno, grand admiral of Venice. About 1390 Nicol6 went on a voyage of discovery into the north- ern seas, was wrecked on what he describes as the island of Frislanda, supposed to be one of the Faroe isles, and was rescued from wreck- ers by the chief of a neighboring principality, whom he calls Zichmni. After serving this chieftain as pilot of his fleet for a year or two, he wrote a letter giving an account of his voy- age to his brother Antonio, who soon after joined him. Nicol6 died in Frislanda four years after his brother's arrival ; and Antonio, after remaining ten years longer in the ser- vice of Zichmni, returned to Venice, where he died about 1405. From the above men- tioned letter from Nicol6 to Antonio, and from other letters from Antonio to his brother Car- lo, a narrative was compiled and published in 1558 by Nicold Zeno, a descendant of Anto- nio. This was accompanied by a map illus- trative of the account, which was found in the palace and supposed to be by one of the broth- ers. The narrative gives an account of a visit made by both to the Shetland isles, and by Ni- cold to Greenland, with details concerning the colonies there, and of the voyages of fishermen to an island called Estotiland, supposed to be Newfoundland, and to a country called Drogeo, conjectured to be on the mainland of North America. This narrative, which if true would seem to prove that the new world was visited by Venetians a century before the discovery by Columbus, has been severely assailed by several writers, especially Admiral Zahrtmann of the Danish navy; but Mr. E. H. Major, in a communication to the royal geographical so- ciety of London, upholds its general accuracy, and shows Zichmni to be Henry Sinclair, earl of Orkney. (See " Journal of the Eoyal Geo- graphical Society," 1873.) ZENOBIA, Septimla, queen of Palmyra. Sho was the daughter of an Arab chief, and had by her first husband a son named Athenodorus Vaballathus, whom she is said to have invested with the purple when she attained to power. Her second husband was Septimius Odenathus, prince of Palmyra, who after the surrender of the emperor Valerian to Sapor, king of Persia, pursued and twice defeated the latter, was afterward associated by Gallienus in the gov- ernment of the empire with the title of Augus- tus, and was assassinated in A. D. 266 by his nephew Mseonius. Zenobia put the assassin to death, and assumed the vacant Palmyrene throne. For five years she governed Palmyra, Syria, and adjoining parts of the East with vigor and judgment, independent of the Ro- man power, and compelled one of the Roman generals sent against her to retreat with loss into Europe. She assumed the title of queen of the East, and exacted from her subjects the same adoration that was paid to the Per- sian monarchs. She maintained her power through the reigns of Gallienus and Claudius, but in 272 Aurelian defeated her in two pitched battles, one at Antioch, the other at Emesa, when she shut herself up in Palmyra, and pre- pared for a vigorous defence. To an advan- tageous capitulation offered by Aurelian she returned an insulting refusal, confiding in her eastern allies, and in the famine which she trusted would assail the Romans. Disappointed in both, she prepared to fly, but was captured after reaching the Euphrates, 60 miles from Pal- myra (273). To the demand of Aurelian why she had taken up arms against the emperors, she replied : " Because I disdained to consider as Roman emperors an Aureolus or a Gallienus ; you alone I acknowledge as my conqueror and my sovereign." She sacrificed her ministers, one of whom was the celebrated Longinus, to the resentment of Aurelian. She adorned the triumph of the emperor, but was presented by him with an elegant villa at Tibur, where she passed the rest of her life. Her daughters married into noble Roman families, and her descendants were still living in the 5th century. Zenobia was exceedingly beautiful, dark in complexion, with large, black, fiery eyes. She spoke Latin, Greek, Syriac, and Egyptian, and wrote for her own use an epitome of oriental history. She was a passionate hunter, and thoroughly inured to fatigue, sometimes walk- ing on foot at the head of her troops. The emperor gave her son Vaballathus a small principality in Armenia.
