Malta Classics Association

Next week's Lecture: https://fb.me/e/4nd4rooyJ

Zenobia is recognised as one of the most prominent female figures of late antiquity. As queen of Palmyra in the third century, she aspired to become empress of Rome, which her kingdom then belonged to. Although her political career was brief, the circumstances of her rise to power, her confrontation with Rome, and the ambiguity surrounding her fate after defeat quickly transformed her historical narrative into legend. Greek, Latin, Byzantine, and Arabic traditions, along with other textual traditions, appropriated her story, adapting it to serve their respective political, ideological, and theological agendas. However, in this paper, we will demonstrate that the legend of Zenobia began to take shape in the 3rd century, during her lifetime, particularly in the East, where it originated within the Palmyrene court before spreading to the Eastern and Western parts of the Empire.

This paper will examine the motif of Zenobia’s alleged descent from Cleopatra, from its initial construction within Zenobia’s court — notably in the fragmentary inscription preserving Callinicos’ speech, as part of a broader strategy of self-representation — to its later literary reworking in the Historia Augusta, highlighting the connections between these sources that have so far gone largely unnoticed.
___
Dr Wifek Aouinet is a Senior Lecturer in French and Cultural Studies at the Institute of Tourism Studies (Malta). She holds a PhD in Classical Studies. Her research examines the reception of historical figures across Mediterranean traditions, focusing on cross-cultural transmission and the role of political and ideological contexts in shaping narratives.

The obscure festival of the Agonalia was celbrated three times every year, on 9th January, on 21st May and on the 11th of December. Like that of many other religious festivals and intitutions, its institution was attributed to the second king of Rome, Numa Pompilius. Not much else is known about the festival except that a ram was sacrificed by the Rex Sacrificulus at the Regia to the guardian gods of the State.

Image: ruins of the Regia
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regia #/media/File:Regia_pano.jpg)