Zenobia Being Paraded in a Roman Triumph

From the Getty Museum record

The queen of Palmyra famously enjoyed the forest more than attending court, but she was a formidable leader, well-versed in several languages and experienced in diplomacy. Despite her military prowess, however, she was ultimately defeated by the Roman emperor Aurelian and forced to parade in a triumphal procession, not as a victor, as she had hoped, but as a prisoner. Although the text describes Zenobia as dark-skinned and of Egyptian origin, the artist depicted the queen with a pale skin tone and wearing sixteenth-century European-style clothing.