'We come,' replied Petronius, 'as you may surmises great Queen, upon no
pleasing errand. Yet we cannot but persuade ourselves, that the Queen of
Palmyra will listen to the proposals of Aurelian, and preserve the good
understanding which has lasted so long between the West and the East.
There have been brought already to your ears, if I have been rightly
informed, rumors of dissatisfaction on the part of our Emperor, with the
affairs of the East, and of plans of an eastern expedition. It is my
business now to say, that these rumors have been well founded. I am
further to say, that the object at which Aurelian has aimed, in the
preparations he has made, is not Persia, but Palmyra.'

'He does us too much honor,' said Zenobia, her color rising, and her eye
kindling; 'and what, may I ask, are specifically his demands, and the
price of peace?'

'For a long series of years,' replied the ambassador, 'the wealth of Egypt
and the East, as you are aware, flowed into the Roman treasury. That
stream has been diverted to Palmyra. Egypt, and Syria, and Bithynia, and
Mesopotamia, were dependants upon Rome, and Roman provinces. It is
needless to say what they now are. The Queen of Palmyra was once but the
Queen of Palmyra; she is now Queen of Egypt and of the East--Augusta of
the Roman empire--her sons styled and arrayed as Caesars. By whatever
consent of former emperors these honors have been won or permitted, it is
not, we are required to say, with the consent of Aurelian. By whatever
service in behalf of Rome they may, in the judgment of some, be thought to
be deserved, in the judgment of Aurelian the reward exceeds greatly the
value of the service rendered. But while we would not be deemed insensible
to those services, and while he honors the greatness and the genius of
Zenobia, he would, he conceives, be unfaithful to the interests of those