Palmyra. But as it is, notwithstanding the great achievements of Odenatus
and Zenobia, I cannot but deem the glory of this state to have risen to
its highest point, and even to have passed it. You may think me to be
hasty in forming this opinion, but I am persuaded you will agree with me
when you shall have seen more at length the grounds upon which I rest it,
as they are laid down in my last letter to Portia.

But I did not mean to say these things when I sat down to my tablets, but
rather to tell you of myself, and what I have seen and done since I last
wrote. I have experienced and enjoyed much. How indeed could it be
otherwise, in the house of Gracchus, and with Gracchus and Fausta for my
companions? Many are the excursions we have together taken into the
country, to the neighboring hills whence the city derives its ample supply
of water, and even to the very borders of the desert. I have thus seen
much of this people, of their pursuits, and modes of life, and I have
found that whether they have been of the original Palmyrene
population--Persian or Parthian emigrants--Jews, Arabians, or even
Romans--they agree in one thing, love of their queen, and in a
determination to defend her and her capital to the last extremity, whether
against the encroachments of Persia or Rome, Independence is their
watchword. They have already shown, in a manner the most unequivocal, and
to themselves eternally honorable, that they will not be the slaves of
Sapor, nor dependents upon his power. And in that they have given at the
same time the clearest proof of their kindly feeling toward us, and of
their earnest desire to live at peace with us. I truly hope that no
extravagances on the part of the Queen, or her too-ambitious advisers,
will endanger the existing tranquillity; yet from a late occurrence of
which I was myself a witness among other excited thousands, I am filled
with apprehensions.