Septimius Odaenathus was the founder king (Mlk) of the Palmyrene Kingdom who ruled from Palmyra, Syria. He elevated the status of his kingdom from a regional center subordinate to Rome into a formidable state in the Near East. Odaenathus was born into an aristocratic Palmyrene family that had received Roman citizenship in the 190s under the Severan dynasty. He was the son of Hairan, the descendant of Nasor. The circumstances surrounding his rise are ambiguous; he became the lord (ras) of the city, a position created for him, as early as the 240s and by 258, he was styled a consularis, indicating a high status in the Roman Empire.
Relief from the Temple of the Gadde at Dura-Europos depicting the god "Gad" of Dura (center), King Seleucus I Nicator (right) and Hairan son of Maliko son of Nasor, a possible relative of Odaenathus (left).
Odaenathus' alleged portrait from the Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek museum
The temple of Bel, belonging to the Palmyrene colony in Dura-Europos; destroyed by the Sassanians in 256.
Bas relief depicting the triumph of Shapur I over Valerian
Palmyra is an ancient city in the eastern part of the Levant, now in the center of modern Syria. Archaeological finds date back to the Neolithic period, and documents first mention the city in the early second millennium BC. Palmyra changed hands on a number of occasions between different empires before becoming a subject of the Roman Empire in the first century AD.
The ruins of Palmyra in 2010
The northern Palmyrene mountain belt
Alphabetic inscription in Palmyrene alphabet
Palmyrene funerary portrait representing Aqmat, a Palmyrene aristocrat