352 HISTORICAL TALES.

This lovely and accomplished woman gave her
hand in marriage to Odenathus, who from a private
station had gained by his valor the empire of the
Hast. He made Syria his by courage and ability,
and twice pursued the Persian king to the gates of
Ctesiphon. Of this hero Zenobia became the com-
panion and adviser. In hunting, of which he was
passionately fond, she emulated him, pursuing the
lions, panthers, and other wild beasts of the desert
with an ardor equal to his own, and a fortitude and
endurance which his did not surpass. Inured to
fatigue, she usually appeared on horseback in a
military habit, and at times marched on foot at the
head of the troops. Odenathus owed his success
largely to the prudence and fortitude of his incom-
parable wife.

In the midst of his successes in war, Odenathus
was cut off in 250 a.v. by assassination. He had
punished his nephew, who killed him in return.
Zenobia at once succeeded to the vacant throne, and
by her ability governed Palmyra, Syria, and the
East. In this tusk, in which no man could have
surpassed her in courage and judgment, she was
aided by the counsels of one of the ablest Greeks
who had appeared since the days of the famous
writers of the classical age. Longinus, who had
been her preceptor in the language and literature of
Greece, and who, on her ascending the throne, be-
came her secretary and chief counsellor in state
affairs, was a literary critic and philosopher whose
lucid intellect seemed to belong to the brightest
days of Greece. He was probably a native of Syria,