FREE ESSAY ON ROLE MODELS

ROLE MODELS

SAMIRAMIS AND ZENOBIA
A role model is an important person who has an important role in society. He is an
example to his people and everybody wish to follow him and be like him in order to have
the same fame that he has. Actually, people make role models ; they believe in some
people and in their ideologies and they let them be famous by spreading or applying their
ideas . We can say that, in order to be classified as a role model, one should be
different than other people. One may have an extra capacity or intelligence which he
proved and that made the people love or hate him. A role model is, therefore, any tyrant
or loving person that made some different thing from other people. Each role model should
have some ideologies that he has to accomplish or try to apply on people. Therefore ,
even if he doesn't make his values and norms valued in real life , he may left some
souvenir and some hope in some people's life. Well, role models exist and have existed
since ancient times. They contributed in creating and marking our history by their
behaviours.
This paper deals with two considered to be role models: the first one , from the ancient
time, is Samiramis , and the other is Zenobia. Two important women who can prove that
females were and will always influence and be a contributing member in life and in
history.
Some historians claim that the existence of Samiramis is a fairy tale . Some others argue
about its period of time . However, because her name was connected to the story of Nenoi
and the building of Babel we cannot deny or reject her existence in real life .
Well, Samiramis was born in a strange situation . Some say that she was born in a region
near Syria and that her mother was a maid , who mother left her in the desert after her
birth and it is said that the birds fed her . When she was one year old, a shepherd
called Samiramis found her . She was a child having a magnificent beauty; therefore, he
gave her the name of Samiramis . As she grew up in age , Samiramis became popular for her
extreme beauty in addition to her high intelligence . After a period of time , the
governor of Nenoi called Mnones saw her. Charmed by her beauty, he fell madly in love
with her and decided to marry her . Also , when the king Nenos saw Mnones's wife that is
Samiramis he ordered Mnones to give him Samiramis , and he promised him that he would
give him in return his daughter . 
Mnones loved too much his wife and he couldn't accept or bear the idea of losing her in
addition to the fact that he doesn't dare to disobey the king's orders ; therefore,
Mnones killed himself . 
After Mnones's death, Samiramis had to marry Nenos . This latest died after 52 years from
reigning the country, and he left the kingship to his wife as his only son was still very
young . Samiramis spread the news of her reign all over the country and declared that
every member in the country should obey her orders . She put in her finger the king's
ring and she sat on the throne .Unfortunately , Samiramis misused her power . She wanted
to have an immortal image and an unforgettable name, so she let her people build her the
great city of Babylon which needed two million workers to achieve it .
In addition to the great city of Babylon , Samiramis ordered her people to build various
castles in which she lived and where she had too many gardens established on her honour .
What we should add is that each one of these monuments had her name and a paragraph that
certifies the power Samiramis had . It was, therefore, known according to these texts
that Samiramis had the strength of a man and that she was able to control the powers of
nature ,for example she certified that she is the one who forced the rivers to flood
whenever she liked. 
Samiramis was an intelligent woman, and she used this intelligence during war. When she
went to conquer India, for example, she covered the camels she had with bull's skin, so
they would look like these latest .So ,when she and her army reached India, the elephants
were afraid of the bulls and they ran away and that's how she won the first part of the
war. Nevertheless, later on, her trick was discovered, and the Indian army directed by
their Indian prince followed them. While turning back to her territories, Samarium's was
struck in her hand by an arrow sent from the prince . When she came back to her country,
Samiramis found out that her only son had taken over the throne, and he rejected his
mother. Feeling a big defeat, Samiramis killed herself in 2069 B.C., and since that time,
she was considered immortal, and the symbol of the pigeon always symbolised her, and her
immortality.
Now that we wrote about Samiramis, the great queen that reigned during ancient history,
during the period before 2069 B.C., it is time to switch to a new period of time that of
Zenobia who died about 260 A.D. 
Zenobia, born in Palmyra, was the wife of Odenathus, a chief of various tribes in the
desert. He had many alliances with the Romans. Therefore, he was known as Augustus,
leader of the east.
Indeed, Augustus did win a lot of battles because of the help of the Romans. This
latter's nephew assassinated him, because of jealousy that's why Zenobia took revenge,
and destroyed all the territories of her husband's nephew in return to what he did .Now
that Augustus is dead , one of his children should take his place and rule the country
but since they were minors, they couldn't rule the country, so she governed first in the
name of her sons, but later she called herself the queen of Palmyra in Syria, put on the
king's crown and became the sole ruler. 
Zenobia was as beautiful as Samiramis even though she was more respectful than this
latter. She had a rare intelligence, had a knowledge in Latin, Greek, and hieroglyphics.
She took the famous Faotegenes as her teacher, and she knew a lot about Homers and Plato,
as she was a familiar with their books. As we said, Zenobia was famous for her beauty and
she was known for being courageous, brilliant and intelligent. For instance, she used to
follow her husband to the forest during the hunt season, and she was never afraid of the
fierce animals like lions and tigers. It is also known that she helped her husband gain
the wars he made. She wasn't a weak woman, and she denied her feelings. When she
governed, she showed her people all the love she had, and treated them as she was dealing
with her children. She had a strange monetary policy, as she used to spend huge sums of
money on poets, philosophers, and artists. In addition, she used to bring them from their
native countries, and let them live next to her. 
Zenobia reigned in Palmyra. Her place resembled to paradise on earth. It contained huge
gardens and buildings. All the streets were clean. Her residence used to be like a small
city, it had a temple called the temple of the sun, having in its centre countless
numbers of pyramids. Near the temple was her castle which was as big as a big city. As
time went by, Zenobia added to her husband's territories Egypt; therefore, her
occupations were expanded from the Euphrates river till the Mediterranean sea, including
Jerusalem, Antioch, and Damascus. The Roman emperor did not want to consider her as a
real queen. This is why he sent his army to her so many times, but each time, they were
defeated. But when Lucus Domitius Aurelian became the Roman Emperor, he decided to defeat
Zenobia, and he denied the fact that a woman would still be an ally of Rome. Therefore,
he sent his army towards Palmyra to attack it and to face Zenobia, who used to call
herself Augustia, referring to the good relationship with Rome. When Zenobia heard of
Aurelian's plans, she was prepared to face him. She knew about his approach as she was
hunting. Therefore, she came back to her town, hoping to defeat him. The servant of the
Aurelian army told Zenobia that she should give back the Roman empire all the territories
she took, such as Egypt and Syria, as they were Roman territories. He declared that the
case was not the same as it had been before Aurelian's reign. Everything should change.
Zenobia would not be allowed anymore to wear Roman clothes, or have any alliances with
them. After listening to what the servant said, Zenobia got furious, and she told him
that she was not going to give up the territories she had, only to please Aurelian, and
she declared that she was hoping and planning to have a larger and a more expanded
empire. After what she said, she took her army to confront Aurelian's one, and they had a
big battle in which she lost. After the battle, Aurelian declared that Zenobia was really
a strong woman, who should be honoured and he added by saying that he was very pleased
for having met a woman like her . Then, Aurelian and his army took the city of Palmyra,
and they captured Zenobia.
This latter, not accepting her defeat, gave up eating, thus she killed herself so she
won't see what her destiny as a slave in Aurelian's palace would leave to her .
As we can see is that we are dealing here with two women Samiramis and Zenobia . The
first one Samiramis, lived in the period known as the ancient history, whereas Zenobia
lived before 260 A.D. a period of history known as the new period in history . What
should be noticed is that these two women aren't ordinary ones , they didn't have an
ordinary life , but they contributed in the life and fate of many others . Both ,
Samiramis and Zenobia were wives to famous kings (and both of them were very beautiful) ,
and when their husbands died , they both were the ones who took the power and ruled the
country and they spread the news of their reign . In addition, Samiramis let herself have
the king's ring in her finger, whereas Zenobia did put on the king's crown . Each one had
some political values and norms , Zenobia wanted to enlarge her territories and to expand
her lands . In the same way Samiramis wanted to immortalise her image to her people
that's why she asked to build the great garden of Babylon . In addition , she conquered a
lot of territories and proved that she had the strength of a great warrior . And we can
add that Zenobia used to spend a lot of money for the intellectuals so she is a person
who loved educated people therefore she loved education . We can say briefly that these
two women had a similar life as ruler of a country , and what is important to say is that
both of them killed themselves while feeling defeat . Samiramis felt the defeat when she
found that her son rejected her and took over the power ,and Zenobia felt the same and
killed herself while being a slave at the Indian prince . 
Both of them couldn't bare the idea of defeat after being at the top of their reign . Or
we may consider that they don't like from their people to see them like this after having
a enormous strength and power . Finally what is to say that I'm not being sexist while
choosing two important women to talk about in this project . But it is important to prove
that women since ancient times did have a certain power and they did contribute in
history . These two women are considered to be role models as their legend or story is
still popular . and as we said that it is people who make the role models , well ,
Samiramis and Zenobia are important role models that had an influence on people
especially on women who took these two as an example and that try to imitate them and let
women have an important role in life . 
University of Balamand
F.A.S.S
ROLE MODELS : ZENOBIA AND SAMIRAMIS
CS 201 section B
Miss Nivine Mattar
Nadine Domloj