Armenia, and Persia, dreaded her enmity, and solicited her alliance. To the dominions of Odenathus, which extended from the Euphrates to the frontiers of Bithynia, his widow added the inheritance of her ancestors, the'populous and fertile kingdom of Egypt. The emperor Claudius acknowledged her merit, and was content, that, while [ye pursued the Gothic war, she should assert the dignity of the empire in the East do. The conduct, however, of Zenobia, was attended with some ambiguity; nor is it unlikely that she had conceived the design of erecting an independent and hostile monarchy. She blended with the popular manners of Roman princes the stately pomp of the courts of Afia, and exacted from her subjects the same adoration that was paid to the successors of Cyrus. She bestowed on her three sons 5' a Latin education, and often shewed them to the troops adorned with the Imperial purple. For herself she reserved the diadem, with the splendid but doubtful title of Alcen of the East. a