Note 31 — FIFTH DISCOURSE
A. R. (Alfred Richard) Allinson translation
P. 49:
◆Boccaccio has arranged this story in his De claries mulieribus, cap. CI. Vopiscus, Aurelius, XXVI–XXX, relates this fact more coolly.
◆Zenobia, the famous Queen of Palmyra, widow of Odena—thus, who had been allowed by the weak Emperor Gallienus to participate in the title of Augustus, and had extended his empire over a great part of Asia Minor, Syria and Egypt. She was eventually defeated by Aurelian in a great battle on the Orontes not far from Antioch. Palmyra was destroyed, and its inhabitants massacred; and Zenobia brought in chains to Rome.
◆The Emperor Aurelian was born about 212 A. D., and was of very humble origin. He served as a soldier in almost every part of the Roman Empire, and rose at last to the purple by dint of his prowess and address in arms, succeeding Claudius in 270 A. D. Almost the whole of his short reign of four years and a half was occupied in constant fighting. Killed in a conspiracy 275 A. D.