Yasmine Zahran first encountered Zenobia, the 3rd century Syrian Palmyrene queen who led the revolt against the Romans, in 1973 when she was working as a young archaeologist in the Levant. So began a lifetime's preoccupation with the woman who ruled over the Egypt she conquered and quashed all Roman rule in her wake. Although she was eventually defeated by the Emperor Aurelian in 274, Zenobia's life is a story of remarkable drama and achievement. In Zenobia: Between Reality and Legend, Yasmine Zahran explores the blurred line between the woman and the myth, and brings her world and time vividly and thrillingly to life through first-person narrative. This is history told with the energy of a novel, and the informed hand of a writer at her peak.