Men of
Palmyra, you who to-day have dared to think of rebellion, look on
your leader here and know how Rome deals with traitors. But,
because the merchant Odaenathus bore a Roman name, and was of
Roman rank--ho, soldiers! bear him to his house, and let Palmyra
pay such honor as befits his name and station."
The struggling children were half led, half carried into the
sculptured atrium[1] of the palace of Odaenathus which, embowered
in palms and vines and wonderful Eastern plants, stood back from
the marble colonnade on the Street of the Thousand Columns. And
when in that same atrium the body of the dead merchant lay
embalmed and draped for its "long home,"[2] there, kneeling by
the stricken form of the murdered father and kinsman, and with
uplifted hand, after the vindictive manner of these fierce old
days of blood, Odaemathus and Zenobia swore eternal hatred to
Rome.
[1] The large central "living-room" of a Roman palace.
[2] The Palmyreans built great tower-tombs, beautiful in
architecture and adornment, the ruins of which still stand on the
hill slopes overlooking the old city. These they called their
"long homes," and you will find the word used in the same sense
in Ecclesiastes xii.
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