Page:A Biographical Dictionary of the Celebrated Women of Every Age and Country (1804).djvu/868

852854 [sic] of jealousy to the Romans, whose generals she conquered, till Aurelian himself headed the army against her. He defeated her in two battles, and besieged her in Palmyra. She made a vigorous defence; but, finding she should be obliged to surrender, she quitted it privately; but was overtaken in her flight, and carried prisoner to Rome by Aurelian, who gave her a country house near that city, where she spent the remainder of her life in privacy, with her children; consoled by literature for the loss of empire. Aurelian caused her to be led in triumph; and when he was reproached by some, for triumphing over a woman, he replied, that her courage and power had been superior to any man. All historians give the greatest eulogiums to this princess. She was the protectress of the learned, learned herself; a wise politician, and an active warrior. She was a beautiful dark woman.

whose minority she governed the empire with great firmness and discretion, quelling the revolt of Constantine Ducas, obliging the Bulgarians to return to their own country, and making a peace with the Saracens. Her ungrateful son, on coming of age, sent his mother into exile, where she died. She is not to be confounded with Zoë, the second wife of the same emperor, who was afterwards crowned empress, and died in 895.