v18_0616 - AURELIANO e VABALLATO Tétradrachme, (MB, Æ 21)

AURELIAN and VABALLATHUS

(270-272)

Vaballath, son of Zenobia and Odenath, succeeded his father who was assassinated in 266 or 267. After a period of uncertainty during which the Palmyraeans occupied Syria, Palestine and Egypt while seeming to recognize the authority of Rome (of where the issuance of Antoninianus at the beginning of the reign of Aurelian), relations deteriorated quickly. Vaballath was proclaimed august in 272. Aurelian, after a short campaign, retook Egypt and engaged in a definitive battle which ended with the destruction of Palmyra and the capture of Vaballath and Zenobia, who participated in his triumph in 274.