Beate Dignas & Engelbert Winter - Kaveh Farrokh

23 Palmyra 159
with Persia before the Palmyrene lord was granted the position of vir consularis.
42 In light of the ‘crisis’ of the Roman Empire, which reached its
peak around the middle of the third century, this development turned out
to be extremely advantageous for Rome. Concerted actions of Palmyra and
Persia would have entailed severe consequences for Rome. 43 Because of the
growing tensions between the great powers it was impossible for Palmyra
to adopt a neutral position. This is why Odaenathus once more tried to get
closer to Rome. The anonymous author of the Historia Augusta (c. 400)
reveals how significant the military activities of Odaenathus were for Rome’s
policy in the East.
Scriptores Historiae Augustae, Tyranni triginta 15. 1–4
(1) If Odaenathus, the Palmyrene prince, had not seized power after the capture of
Valerian when the resources of the Roman state were exhausted, the East would
have been lost. (2) As it was, after having assumed for the first time the title ‘King’
he gathered an army and then set out against the Persians together with his wife
Zenobia, with his oldest son, whose name was Herodes, and with the younger
sons Herennianos and Timolaos. 44 (3) First, he brought under his power Nisibis
and most of the East together with all of Mesopotamia, after that he forced the
defeated king himself to flee. (4) Finally, he pursued ˇ Sāpūr (I) and his children all
the way to Ktēsiphōn, captured his concubines and also made a great amount of
booty.
Although this chronique scandaleuse of Roman emperors is a problematic
historical source (4), we cannot but agree with the ancient author that
Rome was only able to retain its Eastern provinces because of the help of
the Palmyrene lord Odaenathus. We learn that after Valerian (253–60) had
been captured by ˇ Sāpūr in the year 260 (5) Odaenathus gathered an army
and advanced against the Persians. In the second half of the year 260 he
started a first counter-attack. 45 The military successes in Mesopotamia mentioned
in the Historia Augusta were part of another Persian campaign (262–
4), upon which Odaenathus embarked at the instigation of the emperor
Gallienus (260–8), using Palmyrene as well as Roman troops. In particular
Odaenathus’ previous involvement in suppressing the attacks (260–1)
against Gallienus’ reign 46 persuaded the emperor to give him full powers
with regard to the war in the East.
42 Petr. Patr., frg. 10; cf. on this source Kettenhofen 1982: 72–3 and 124.
43 Thus Alföldi 1939: 178.
44 On the question whether these names are fictive see Hohl 1976–1985: 365 n. 1 on SHA Tyr. Trig. 27.1.
45 On Odaenathus’ Persian campaigns see De Blois 1975: 7–23; Kettenhofen 1982: 122–6 and Bleckmann
1992: 122–9.
46 On these events see Strobel 1993: 246–56.