Page:Great Men and Famous Women Volume 5.djvu/60

30 WORKMEN AND HEROES Palmyra surrendered to the conqueror, who seized upon the treasures of the city, but spared the buildings and the lives of the inhabitants. Leaving in the place a garrison of Romans, he returned to Europe, carrying with him Zenobia and her family, who were destined to grace his triumph. But scarcely had Aurelian reached the Hellespont, when tidings were brought to him that the inhabitants of Palmyra had again revolted, and had put the Roman governor and garrison to the sword. Without a moment's delibera- tion the emperor turned back, reached Palmyra by rapid marches, and took a terrible vengeance on that miserable and devoted city ; he commanded the indis- criminate massacre of all the inhabitants men, women, and children ; fired its magnificent edifices, and levelled its walls to the ground. He afterward repented of his fury, and devoted a part of the captured treasures to reinstate some of the glories he had destroyed ; but it was too late ; he could not reanimate the dead, nor raise from its ruins the stupendous Temple of the Sun. Palmyra became desolate ; its very existence was forgotten, until about a century ago, when some English travellers discovered it by accident. Thus the blind fury of one man ex- tinguished life, happiness, industry, art, and intelligence through a vast extent of country, and severed a link which had long connected the eastern and western continents of the old world. When Aurelian returned to Rome after the termination of this war, he cele- brated his triumph with extraordinary pomp. A vast number of elephants and tigers, and strange beasts from the conquered countries; sixteen hundred gladia* tors, an innumerable train of captives, and a gorgeous display of treasures gold, silver, gems, plate, glittering raiment, and Oriental luxuries and rarities, the rich plunder of Palmyra, were exhibited to the populace. But every eye was fixed on the beautiful and majestic figure of the Syrian queen, who walked in the pro- cession before her own sumptuous chariot, attired in her diadem and royal robes, blazing with jewels, her eyes fixed on the ground, and her delicate form droop- ing under the weight of her golden fetters, which were so heavy that two slaves were obliged to assist in supporting them on either side ; while the Roman pop- ulace, at that time the most brutal and degraded in the whole world, gaped and stared upon her misery, and shouted in exultation over her fall. Perhaps Zeno- bia may in that moment have thought upon Cleopatra, whose example she had once proposed to follow ; and, according to the pagan ideas of greatness and for- titude, envied her destiny, and felt her own ignominy with all the bitterness of a vain repentance. The captivity of Zenobia took place in the year 273, and in the fifth year cf her reign. There are two accounts of her subsequent fate, differing widely from each other. One author asserts that she starved herself to death, refusing to survive her own disgrace and the ruin of her country ; but others inform us that the Emperor Aurelian bestowed on her a superb villa at Tivoli, where she resided in great honor ; and that she was afterward united to a Roman senator, with whom she lived many years, and died at a good old age. Her daughters married into Roman families, and it is said that some of her descendants remained so late as the fifth century.