Fall of Palmyra

The city-state of Palmyra, a wealthy caravan city in the Syrian desert that had expanded into a short-lived breakaway empire under Queen Zenobia after the death of her husband Odaenathus in 267 CE, was defeated by Roman forces under Emperor Aurelian in 272 CE. Zenobia had exploited Roman weakness during the Crisis of the Third Century to seize Egypt and much of Roman Asia Minor, proclaiming her son Vaballathus emperor and effectively ruling an independent Palmyrene Empire stretching from Egypt to central Anatolia. Aurelian defeated Zenobia's forces at the battles of Immae and Emesa in 272, besieged and captured Palmyra itself, and initially spared the city, but a subsequent revolt in 273 led him to sack it thoroughly, ending its role as a major trading power. Zenobia herself was captured and, according to most ancient accounts, was paraded in Aurelian's triumph in Rome before living out her life in Italian exile, and Palmyra never recovered its former wealth and independence.