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Post haec Palmyram iter flexit, ut ea oppugnata laborum terminus fieret. sed in itinere a latronibus Syris male accepto frequenter exercitu multa perpessus est et in obsidione usque ad ictum sagittae periclitatus est. Epistula ipsius exstat ad Mucaporem missa, in qua Septimius Zabdas (Zaba, see Claud., xi. 1), who had commanded in the battle near Antioch, after abandoning the city to Aurelian, fell back to the south along the Orontes to Emesa (Homs), where the great battle of the war was fought. Zenobia's troops, 70, 000 strong, greatly outnumbered the Romans, and her cavalry drove the Roman horse from the field, but her infantry was badly defeated by Aurelian. The defeated remnants of the Queen's army took refuge in the city, but the hostility of the towns-folk forced her to retreat across the desert to Palmyra, 90 miles distant, leaving behind a great amount of treasure. de huius belli difficultate ultra pudorem imperialem fatetur: Romani me modo dicunt bellum contra feminam gerere, quasi sola mecum Zenobia et suis viribus pugnet, atque hostium quantum si vir a me oppugnandus esset, illa conscientia et timore longe deteriore. dici non potest quantum hic sagittarum est, qui belli apparatus, quantum telorum, quantum lapidum ; nulla pars muri est quae non binis et ternis ballistis occupata sit; ignes etiam tormentis iaciuntur. quid plura? timet quasi femina, pugnat quasi poenam timens, sed credo adiuturos Romanam rem publicam vere deos, qui numquam nostris conatibus defuerunt. Denique fatigatus ac pro malis fessus litteras ad Zenobiam misit deditionem illius petens, vitam pro- mittens, quarum exemplum indidi : Aurelianus imperator Romani orbis et receptor orientis Zenobiae ceterisque quos societas tenet bellica. sponte facere debuistis id quod meis litteris nunc habetur, deditionem enim praecipio impunitate vitae proposita, ita ut illic, Zenobia, cum tuis agas vitam ubi te ex senatus amplissimi sententia conlocavero. gemmas, aurum, argentum, sericum, equos, camelos in Romanum aerarium conferatis. Palmyrenis ius suum servabitur. illa Editor ; in P, Peter. uere Petschenig; uir P ; ueros Salm., Peter.
