ZENOBIA AND LONGINUS.

Amone the most famous of the women of ancient
days must be named Zenobia, the celebrated queen
of Palmyra and the East, and who claimed to be
descended from the kings whom the conquests of
Alexander left over Egypt, the Ptolemies, among
whose descendants was included the still more cele-
brated Cleopatra. Zenobia was the most lovely as
well as the most heroic of her sex, no woman of
Asiatic birth ever having equalled her in striking
evidence of valor and ability, and none surpassed
her in beauty. We are told that while of a dark
complexion, her smile revealed tecth of pearly white-
ness, while her large black eyes sparkled with an
uncommon brightness that was softened by the most
attractive sweetness. She possessed a strong and
melodious voice, and, in short, had all the charms
of womanly beauty.

Her mind was as well stored as her body was
attractive. She was familiar with the Greek, the
Syriac, and the Egyptian languages, and was an
adept also in Latin, then the political language of
the civilized world. She was an earnest student of
Oriental history, of which she herself drew up an
epitome, while she was fully conversant with Homer

and Plato, and the other great writers of Greece.
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