Paul of Samosata under Claudius. The Egyptian evidence shows the invasion coming in the
regime of the prefect Probus in /;^103 papyri and Alexandrian coins sug-
gest that the actual capture of the city did not take place until the end of
.^104 This agrees absolutely with the fact that the offerings the Palmyrenes
made at the shrine of Aphrodite at Aphaca, between Baalbek and Byblos,
were presented only a year before their final disaster in ,^105 and that the
inscription of Zenobia from near Byblos calls her ‘‘Augusta,’’ and therefore
seems to belong in the latest period, probably .^106
From this evidence it is not inconceivable that the Palmyrene drive south-
west, through Arabia to Egypt, came before the occupation of northern
Syria. It is possible that Antioch was not occupied until ; none of our
evidence firmly indicates any earlier date.^107 We must accept that Emesa was
firmly within the Palmyrene sphere of control through the s; but the ter-
ritory of Emesa bordered that of Palmyra itself, and the two cities had close
cultural ties.^108 Have we any evidence to suggest the existence of a wider
sphere of Palmyrene influence throughout this period?
Firstly, we have the title which is alleged to have been held by Odena-
thus from about , and inherited by Vabalathus in /, namelycorrector
totius Orientis.^109 If genuine, such an expression might indeed give some jus-
tification for the notion of an active Palmyrene patronage in Syrian cities.
But nothing in our documentary evidence justifies the supposition of such a
Latin title. The documents show that Odenathus had the title MTQNN’ DY
MDNH’ KLH.^110 MTQNN’ could be the equivalent ofRestitutor(restorer)
. See A. Stein,Die Präfekten von Agypten in der römischen Kaiserzeit(), –.
. See P. J. Parsons, ‘‘A Proclamation of Vaballathus?,’’Chron. d’Ég. (): . See
also n. below.
. Zos. , .
.OGIS IGRIII . On the other hand, the milestone of Vabalathus on the
Bostra-Philadelphia road (AE, ) calls him ‘‘Im[perator] Caesar’’ but not ‘‘Augustus,’’
and will be a year or two earlier.
. Perhaps the nearest to concrete evidence available are the twotesserae(tokens) of
Herodianus and Zenobia which wereprobablyfound at Antioch, published by H. Seyrig,
‘‘Note sur Hérodien, prince de Palmyre,’’Syria (): . Herodianus should be the Hero-
des, son of Odenathus, who was killed with his father in / (HA,Trig. Tyr. –). But
even if the find-spots of thetesseraewere certain, they are portable objects.
. See H. Seyrig, ‘‘Caractères de l’histoire d’Émèse,’’Syria (): .
. See M. Clermont-Ganneau, ‘‘Odeinat et Vaballat, rois de Palmyre, et leur titre
romain de Corrector,’’RB (): ; Février (n. ), ; A. Stein,Aegyptus ():
; Schlumberger (n. ), , n. .
.InventaireIII (CIS).