me round, the party of
reform was reduced to a minority of irreconcilable radicals, who were
easily disposed of. Again, as ten years before, the noble lords armed
their followers. Riots broke out and extended day after day. Caius
Gracchus was at last killed, as his brother had been, and under cover of
the disturbance three thousand of his friends were killed along with
him. The power being again securely in their hands, the Senate proceeded
at their leisure, and the surviving patriots who were in any way
notorious or dangerous were hunted down in legal manner, and put to
death or banished.

ZENOBIA, QUEEN OF PALMYRA

By ANNA JAMESON

(REIGNED 267-273 A.D.)

[Illustration: Zenobia.]

Of the government and manners of the Arabians before the time of
Mahomet, we have few and imperfect accounts; but from the remotest ages
they led the same unsettled and predatory life which they do at this
day, dispersed in hordes, and dwelling under tents. It was not to those
wild and wandering tribes that the superb Palmyra owed its rise and
grandeur, though situated in the midst of their deserts, where it is now
beheld in its melancholy beauty and ruined splendor, like an enchanted
island in the midst of an ocean of sands. The merchants who trafficked
between India and Europe, by the only route then known, first colonized
this singular spot, which afforded them a convenient resting-place; and
even in the days of Solomon it was the emporium for the gems and gold,
the ivory, gums, spices, and silks of the far Eastern countries, which
thus found their way to the remotest parts of Europe. The Palmyrenes
were, therefore, a mixed race--their origin, and many of their customs,
were Egyptian; their love of luxury and their manners were derived from
Persia; their language, literature, and architecture were Greek.

Thus, like Venice and Genoa, in more modern times, Palmyra owed its
splendor to the opulence and public spirit of its merchants; but its
chief fame and historical interest it owes to the genius and heroism of
a woman.

[Illustration: Zenobia Captive.]

Septimia Zenobia, for such is her classical appellation, was the
daughter of an Arab chief, Amrou, the son of Dharb, the son of Hassan.
Of her first husband we have no account; she was left a widow at a
very early age, and married, secondly, Odenathus, chief of several
tribes of the desert, near Palmyra, and a prince of extraordinary valor
and boundless ambition. Odenath