Note 101 — Chapter IX · THE EUPHRATES FRONTIER AND THE PARTHIANS. (continued 2)

That Odaenathus, as well as after him his son Vaballathus (apart, of course, from the time after the rupture with Aurelian), were by no means Augusti (as the vit. Gallieni, 12, erroneously states), is shown both by the absence of the name of Augustus on the coins and by the title possible only for a subject, v(ir) c(onsularis) = ὑ(πατικός), which, like the father (p. 97, note 3), the son still bears. The position of governor is designated on the coins of the son by im(perator) d(ux) R(omanorum) = αὐτ(οκράτωρ) σ(τρατηγός); in agreement therewith Zonaras (xii. 23, and again xii. 24) and Syncellus (p. 716) state that Gallienus appointed Odaenathus, on account of his victory over the Persians and Ballista, as στρατηγὸς τῆς ἑῴας, or πάσης ἀνατολῆς; and the biographer of Gallienus, 10, that he obtinuit totius Orientis imperium. By this is meant all the Asiatic provinces and Egypt; the added imperator = αὐτοκράτωρ (comp. Trig. tyr. 15, 6, post reditum de Perside—Herodes son of Odaenathus—cum patre imperator est appellatus) is intended beyond doubt to express the freer handling of power, different from the usual authority of the governor.—To this was added further the now formally assumed title of a king of Palmyra (Trig. tyr. 15, 2: adsumpto nomine regali), which also the son bears, not on the Egyptian, but on the Syrian coins. The circumstance that Odaenathus is probably called melekh malke, “king of kings,” on an inscription set up in August 271, and so after his death and during the war of his adherents with Aurelian (Vogué, n. 28), belongs to the revolutionary demonstrations of this period and forms no proof for the earlier time.