Zenobia

Zenobia (240 AD - ?) was queen of the Palmyrene Empire (Syria), initially as the wife of King Septimus Odaenathus, and then as regent for their infant son (and de facto sovereign) after his death in 267. She was a warrior queen known for her military prowess; she is best known for conquering Egypt and briefly throwing off Palmyra's vassalage to Rome. (Both her husband and her father's family had been granted Roman citizenship, hence "Septimus".) She and her son were overwhelmingly defeated near Antioch and captured soon thereafter by the emperor Aurelian in his campaign to reunite the Roman Empire. Her son died in captivity, but she was famously paraded through the streets of Rome in golden chains for Aurelian's triumph, where she so impressed him that he granted her her freedom and a villa in Tibur. She later married a Roman senator and governor, with whom she in known to have begotten several daughters.