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however, and on reaching Vienna was cordially welcomed by the emperor, and was appointed imperial historiographer as well as poet. He remained eleven years in Vienna, composing dramas and oratorios. But in 1729 advancing years and infirm health made him desirous of returning to his native country. Accordingly having obtained the consent of the emperor, who conferred on him a liberal pension, he took up his residence in Venice, where he spent the remainder of his days, occupying himself in preparing his works for the press, and in forming a collection of books and medals. His comfort was somewhat affected by the war of the Succession, which deprived him of his salary; but the empress, Maria Theresa, soon after bestowed on him a pension of one thousand florins. He died in 1750, in the eighty-second year of his age. He bequeathed his valuable library to the convent of the dominicans of Le Zattere, near Venice. The greater part of it is now in the library of St. Mark. Zeno was a voluminous writer. His dramas were collected and published in 1744, in 10 vols., 8vo. He was possessed not only of poetical talent, but of extensive literary attainments, and of a sound critical judgment. His "Giornale dei Letterati," which, with the continuation by his brother Pietro Caterino Zeno, extends to forty volumes, contains a mass of important literary and biographical information. His "Dissertazioni Vossiane," collected from this journal and published after his death in 2 vols., 4to, was intended to correct the omissions and inaccuracies in Vossius' work, De Historicis Latinis, and is highly esteemed. Zeno is the author also of lives of Paolo Paruta, Cardinal Bembo, Sabellico, Davila the historian, Giambattista Guarino, &c.; of an abridged history of Venice, and various other works. A selection of his letters was published by Morelli in 1785.—J. T.

ZENOBIA, the famous queen of Palmyra, was the daughter of Amrou, an Arab chief, who possessed the southern part of Mesopotamia; but she claimed her descent from the Macedonian kings of Egypt. She was a princess of remarkable beauty and courage, and of a vigorous understanding, which she had strengthened and adorned by study. She was well acquainted with the Greek, Latin, Syriac, and Egyptian languages; and to the accomplishments regarded as proper to her sex, she had added not a few of the most valuable masculine attainments. "Her complexion," says Trebellius Pollio, "was rather dark; her eyes black and piercing; her teeth were as white as pearls; and her voice clear, strong, and harmonious. She lived in great state, like the kings of Persia. Her general character was frugal, but on every proper occasion she was magnificent and liberal." By her first husband, whose name has not been preserved, Zenobia had a son named Athenodorus Waballath. Her second husband was Septimius Odenathus, of an illustrious Palmyrene family, and prince of some tribes who inhabited that part of the desert which surrounds Palmyra. She soon became his confidential adviser in his warlike undertakings, and his companion in the chase; joined him with great ardour in the pursuit of the wild beasts of the desert, often appeared on horseback in a military habit, and frequently marched on foot at the head of the troops. The military successes of Odenathus were in a great measure to be ascribed to the sagacity and heroic valour of his wife. After the defeat and captivity of the Roman emperor Valerian by the Persians in 260, Odenathus single-handed opposed the progress of the victors, twice defeated the Persian monarch, pursued him as far as the gates of Ctesiphon his capital, which he twice besieged, but failed to capture. After these brilliant achievements, in all of which Zenobia took a prominent part, Odenathus assumed the royal title, and was acknowledged by Galienus, the son of Valerian, as his colleague in the empire. The Palmyrenian prince enjoyed his sovereignty but a short time. He was assassinated at Emesa in Syria about the year 266, by his nephew Mæonius, who was soon afterwards put to death by Zenobia. With the assistance of her murdered husband's most faithful counsellors, she immediately took possession of the vacant throne. Assuming the title of Queen of the East, she governed with remarkable prudence and vigour Palmyra, Syria, and the other dominions of Odenathus, which extended from the Euphrates to the frontiers of Bithynia; and she is even said to have exercised authority over Egypt. Her alliance was solicited by the neighbouring states of Arabia, Armenia, and Persia; and she inflicted an ignominious defeat on a Roman general who was sent against her by the senate. She was not more remarkable for her warlike achievements than for the magnificence of her court, for her intellectual acquirements, and the patronage which she bestowed on literature. The celebrated philosopher Longinus was her secretary, and one of her most trusted advisers. It was mainly by his advice that the intrepid princess threw off her allegiance to the Roman empire, and wrote a letter to Aurelian, who had assumed the purple in 270, declaring her independence. This step of course provoked the hostility of the emperor, who passed over into Asia, and defeated the forces of the queen of the East under her general, Zabdas, in two separate engagements—one fought near Antioch, the other under the walls of Emesa. Zenobia, who had animated her soldiers by her presence at these battles, finding it impossible to collect a third army, shut herself up in her capital, determined to resist to the last the assaults of the invaders. The siege of Palmyra was vigorously pressed by Aurelian in person, but the defence was of the most heroic and desperate character. The courage of the queen was sustained by the hope of assistance from Sapor, king of Persia, and other neighbouring potentates, who dreaded the progress of the Roman arms. But the Persian monarch died during the course of the siege; and Zenobia, reduced to the last extremity, resolved to make her escape, and mounted on a fleet dromedary had succeeded in reaching the banks of the Euphrates, sixty miles from Palmyra, when she was overtaken by a body of Aurelian's light horse and brought back a prisoner to the Roman camp. Palmyra soon after surrendered; and to the disgrace of the victor, he caused a number of her counsellors, and among the rest Longinus, to be put to death. Shortly after, provoked by a revolt of the Palmyrenians, he massacred a great portion of the inhabitants, without distinction of age, sex, or condition, and laid the city in ruins, in 273. The queen of the East herself, clothed in a purple robe and fettered by massive golden chains, graced the triumphal procession of the emperor. She was treated, however, with unwonted clemency. Aurelian presented her with an elegant villa at Tibur, where she spent the remainder of her life in honourable retirement. Her only surviving son received a small province of Armenia, with the title of king. "Her daughters married into noble Roman families, and her race was not yet extinct in the fifth century."—(Gibbon's Decline and Fall, chap. xi.; Zosimus, i., 39-59.)—J. T.

ZEUSS, Johann Kaspar, a distinguished German linguist and antiquary, was born at Vogtendorf, near Bamberg, on the 22nd July, 1806. He devoted himself to classical learning and comparative philology at Munich, where, after the completion of his academical course, he became domestic tutor to the family of Count Montgelas. In 1839 he was appointed professor of history at the gymnasium of Speier, whence in 1847 he was translated in the same capacity to Bamberg. Zeuss published the results of his historical researches in the well-known works, "Die Deutschen und die Nachbarstämme;" "Die Herkunft der Baiern von den Markomannen;" "Traditiones Possessionesque Wizenbergenses;" and "Die Freie Reichstadt Speier vor ihrer Zerstörung." All these works, however, have been vastly surpassed by the last and ripest fruit of his studies, his "Grammatica Celtica," Leipsic, 1853, 2 vols., in which he has laid the foundations not only for Celtic grammar, but for Celtic philology in general. Zeuss died unmarried.—K. E.

* ZIEBLAND, Georg Friedrich, a distinguished German architect, was born at Regensberg, on 7th February, 1800. He studied in the Munich academy under J. M. Quaglio. Some designs made by him having attracted the notice of Ludwig I. of Bavaria, he was sent by the king in 1827 to study the early ecclesiastical architecture of Italy. While at Rome he decorated the walls of Ludwig's residence, the Villa Malta, with paintings, copied from those of Pompeii. On his return to Munich in 1829 he was appointed a member of the council of architecture, and erected the tax-house and some other official buildings; completed the Maria-Hilf church in the suburb of Au, commenced by Ohlmüller; and erected royal and other monuments in the church of St. Cajetan, at Aibling, &c. But the work which has made Ziebland's great reputation is the basilica of St. Bonifacius, commenced in 1835 and completed in 1850, at the cost of King Ludwig. It is the most perfect reproduction hitherto made of a Roman basilica of about the fifth century. It is two hundred and eighty-three feet long and one hundred and thirteen wide, and is of red brick; the interior being supported by sixty-four monolithic columns of grey Tyrolese marble, with white marble capitals. The pavement is of marble; the roof open timber-work, elaborately painted; on the walls are Hess's most famous series of frescoes. St. Bonifacius is the largest and most