Septimia Zenobia (in Syriac called Bathzabbai) was the wife of Septimius Odaenatus, a Roman ally/vassal king of Palmyra (in Syria) and later of "the Orient." From his death in 267 C.E. she effectively ruled the kingdom. In 270 she began to encroach on Roman territory in Egypt. Eventually, she titled herself Augusta, putting herself on a level with, the Roman emperors. The emperor Aurelian retook the captured Roman territoryand seized her and her capital in 272. She may at one point have been a student of the Greek philosopher Longinus.

Source: Paul de Rohden and Hermann Dessau, Prosopographia Imperii Romani 3.217-218 (Berlin: George Reimer, 1898).