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Archiver > GEN-MEDIEVAL > 1999-09 > 0937537156


From: "Chris Bennett" < >
Subject: Re: Charlemagne to Zenobia
Date: Thu, 16 Sep 1999 19:59:16 -0700


John Yohalem < > wrote in message
news:7rptin$ ...
> Two queries:
> Can anyone trace for us Zenobia's descent from Cleopatra?
<snip>

No. All we can say is that there are indications that her claim is
plausible -- Cleopatra's last known male descendant, Ptolemy of Mauretania,
married a Julia Urania, which is a rare name attested in Emesan nobility,
and that there appears to be links between Emesan and Palyrene nobility,
including the family of a certain Julius Aurelius Zenobius, who is
chronologically and onomastically plausible as Zenobia's father.

>
> She had two sons by her husband, Odenathus. What became of them? Is there
> any reliable descent traced from them?

One was Herennius (Hairan). There is a fragmentary inscription in Rome
naming a certain L. Septimia Patavinia Balbilla Tyria Nepotilla Odaenathiana
daughter of a Herennia Clea..... With names like this, the chances are
pretty good that these women are descendants of Zenobia's second marriage to
a Roman senator.

> And a comment on Charlemagne:
<snip>
> Bet you whatever you like no one in the Middle Ages ever traced him back
to
> the Andromeda Galaxy.
>

No, but with today's infinitely superior knowledge of the way that ancient
civilisation were really created by space-faring aliens we should be able to
rectify this unfortunate omission without much trouble!

Chris

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