entry into Rome. She was bound by chains of gold, supported by a slave, and so loaded with jewels, that she almost fainted under their weight.
She was afterwards treated more humanely by the victor, who gave her an elegant residence near the Tiber, about twenty miles from Rome, where she passed the rest of her life as a Roman matron, emulating the virtues of Cornelia. Whether she contracted a second marriage with a Roman senator, as some hare asserted, is uncertain. Her surviving son, Vhaballat, withdrew into Armenia, where he possessed a small principality, granted him by the emperor; her daughters contracted noble alliances, and her family was not extinct in the fifth century. She died about the year 300.
Zenobia had written a "History of Egypt;" and, previous to her defeat by Aurelian, she interested herself in the theological controversies of the times; and, either from policy or principle, protected Paul of Samosata, the celebrated unitarian philosopher, whom the council of Antioch had condemned. In estimating her character, it may well be said that she was one of the most illustrious women who have swayed the sceptre of royalty; in every virtue which adorns high station, as far superior to Aurelian, as soul is superior to sense. But moral energy was then overborne by physical force; the era was unpropitious for the gentle sex; yet her triumphs and her misfortunes alike display the wonderful power of woman's spirit.
ZOBEIDE, or ZOEBD-EL-KHEMATIN,
That is, the flower of women, was the cousin and wife of the celebrated caliph Haroun al Raschid. She was a beautiful, pious, and benevolent woman, and is said to have founded the city of Tauris, in Persia. She is frequently mentioned in the "Arabian Nights." She died in 831.
ZOE,
Fourth wife of Leo the Sixth, Emperor of Constantinople, was mother of Constantine Porphyrogenitus, during whose minority, 912, she governed with great wisdom and firmness. She crushed the rebellion of Constantine Ducas, made peace with the Saracens, and obliged the Bulgarians to return to their own country. Though. thus entitled to the gratitude of her son and the people, she was obliged, by the intrigues of the courtiers, to retire to a private station, and she died in exile.
