Vaballathus

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Lucius Iulius (Julius) Aurelius Septimius Vaballathus Athenodorus (266-273) was a king of the Palmyrene Empire. Vaballathus is the Latinized form of his name in the Arabic language, Wahb Allat (وهب اللات) or gift of the Goddess. As the Arabian goddess Allat came to be identified with Athena, he used Athenodorus as the Greek form of his name.

His father was King of Palmyra, Septimius Odaenathus and his mother was Queen Zenobia. When his father was assassinated by his cousin Maeonius (267), Vaballathus was made king (rex consul imperator dux Romanorum, "illustrious King of Kings" and corrector totius orientis) of the Palmyrene Empire. The real power behind the throne was his mother Zenobia. Zenobia conquered Egypt, Syria, Palestine, Anatolia and Lebanon.

Antoninianus struck by Vaballathus. The coinage of Vaballathus also shows, at the beginning, portraits of Aurelian. This means that Aurelian and Vaballathus had recognized each other.

Initially Roman Emperor Aurelian somehow recognized Vaballathus' rule, maybe because he was busy with the Gallic Empire in the west and had no intention to keep open warfare with the Palmyrene Empire. This mutual recognition is testified by early coins minted by Vaballathus, in which Aurelian is portraited with the title augustus. However, the relationship between the two rules degenerated and Aurelian disappears from his coins, while Vaballathus and his mother adopted the titles of augustus and augusta respectively.

The end of Vaballathus rule came when Aurelian conquered and sacked Palmyra (272/3) and took Vaballathus and his mother back to Rome as hostages. According to Zosimus, Vaballathus died on the way to Rome.