Zenobia (wife of Rhadamistos)

Zenobia

Zenobia was a member of the Iberian ruling house living around the middle of the 1st century AD . She was probably the daughter of King Mithridates of Armenia and the wife of the Iberian prince Rhadamistos , who was a son of Mithridates' brother Pharasmanes .

The Roman historian Tacitus made Zenobia the heroine of an incident: When Rhadamistos, after he had usurped the power of government over Armenia for the second time, was chased out by a revolt around 54 AD, he fled with his heavily pregnant wife Zenobia. After some time, however, she was no longer able to cope with the exertions of the flight and allegedly asked her husband to stab her in order not to be captured by the enemies pursuing her. Rhadamistos complied with her request and threw the supposedly dead woman into the Araxes River . However, she was not dead yet, was found by shepherds, cared for and brought to the court of Trdat I in Artaxata . This was a brother of the Parthian great king Vologaeses I and had reoccupied Armenia after Rhadamistos' flight. Trdat I. gave Zenobia extremely courteous and dignified treatment. A Greek inscription, which mentions a donation of territory by Trdat I to a son of Rhadamistos, should refer to the son of Zenobia born at the court of Trdat I and thus prove the historicity of at least the core of the representation of Tacitus.

The material was used in the opera Radamisto by Georg Friedrich Handel and in the often set opera libretto Zenobia by Pietro Metastasio .

literature

Karlhans Abel : Zenobia 1). In: Paulys Realencyclopadie der classischen Antiquity Science (RE). Volume XA, Stuttgart 1972, column 1.
Bernhard Kytzler : women of antiquity. From Aspasia to Zenobia . Artemis, Munich & Zurich 2000, ISBN 3-7608-1224-4 , p. 176.
Werner Suerbaum : The fate of the Armenian princess Zenobia around 54 AD: Killing on request by the husband Radamistus, rescue by the noble enemy. In: Antiquity and the Occident. Volume 60, 2014, pp. 152-174.

Web links

Commons : Zenobia (Iberia) - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Remarks

↑ Tacitus , Annalen 12, 44, 1f.
^ Tacitus, Annalen 12, 51.
↑ Martin Schottky: Zenobia 1). In: The New Pauly (DNP). Volume 12/2, Metzler, Stuttgart 2002, ISBN 3-476-01487-8 , Sp. 730.

personal data
SURNAME	Zenobia
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	Wife of the Iberian Prince Rhadamistos
DATE OF BIRTH	1st century
DATE OF DEATH	1st century or 2nd century

[1] Tacitus , Annalen 12, 44, 1f.

[2] Tacitus, Annalen 12, 51.

[3] Martin Schottky: Zenobia 1). In: The New Pauly (DNP). Volume 12/2, Metzler, Stuttgart 2002, ISBN 3-476-01487-8 , Sp. 730.