Profile for Emperor: Vaballathus - A guide to the coins of the Roman Empire

Vaballathus

Reece Period attributed: Period 13

Member of the Third Century Emperors dynasty.

Coins for this issuer were issued from 271 until 272.

Julius Aurelius Septimius Valbalathus Athenodorus was the son of a lieutenant of Gallienus, Septimius Odaenathus. This lieutenant served Gallienus well and ruled Palmyra, until he was killed under suspicious circumstances which left power in the hands of his widow Zenobia and ten-year-old son Vabalathus.

Gallienus, Claudius, and Quintillus all refused to grant Vabalathus the titles his father had won. When Aurelian became emperor, he didn’t have the resources to directly confront Vabalathus, so he granted him the titles. Two years later, Aurelian had the means to destroy Palmyrene power; he took both Valabalathus and Zenobia captive and paraded them through Rome in his triumph. Zenobia was permitted to live out her days in honourable retirement; the fate of Vabalathus is unknown.

Therefore, Vabalathus had the title Augustus in AD 272, when he issued joint coinage honouring himself and Aurelian.

View all coins recorded by the scheme attributed to Vaballathus.

Wikipedia derived information

Lucius Iulius (Julius) Aurelius Septimius Vabalathus Athenodorus (266-273) was a king of the Palmyrene Empire.

Vabalathus is the Latinized form of his name in the Arabic language, Wahb Allat (ÙÙØ¨ Ø§ÙÙØ§Øª) or gift of the Goddess. As the Arabian goddess AllÄt came to be identified with Athena, he used Athenodorus as the Greek form of his name..

Wikipedia page: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vaballathus
This data is sourced from dbpedia, and as such should be treated with caution