Odaenathus (c. 220 – 267) was the founder of the Palmyrene Kingdom.
Born into an aristocratic family of Palmyra, Syria, he became the lord
of the city in the 240s. By 258, he was a consularis, a position of high
status in the Roman Empire. In 260 the Roman emperor Valerian was
captured by the Sassanian emperor Shapur I, leaving the eastern Roman
provinces at the mercy of the Persians. Odaenathus fought the Persians,
reclaiming the entirety of the Roman lands they occupied. By 263,
following a successful campaign in which he besieged their capital
Ctesiphon, Odaenathus took the title traditionally held by Persian
emperors, King of Kings, and gained effective control of the Levant,
Roman Mesopotamia and Anatolia's eastern region. He was assassinated in
267 during or immediately after a campaign in Anatolia. He was succeeded
by his son Vaballathus under the regency of his widow Zenobia, who used
the power base established by Odaenathus to forge the Palmyrene Empire
in 270.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Odaenathus>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1941:
World War II: The Australian light cruiser HMAS Sydney and the
German auxiliary cruiser Kormoran destroyed each other in the Indian
Ocean.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_between_HMAS_Sydney_and_German_auxiliary_cruiser_Kormoran>
1969:
Playing for Santos against Vasco da Gama in Rio de Janeiro,
Brazilian footballer Pelé scored his thousandth goal.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pel%C3%A9>
1985:
Soviet general secretary Mikhail Gorbachev and U.S. president
Ronald Reagan held the first of five summits between them in Geneva.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geneva_Summit_%281985%29>
2013:
A double suicide bombing at the Iranian embassy in Beirut,
Lebanon, killed 23 people and injured 160 others.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2013_Iranian_embassy_bombing>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
ordure:
1. Dung, excrement.
2. (by extension) Dirt, filth.
3. (by extension) Something regarded as contaminating or perverting the
morals; obscene material.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/ordure>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
You can, after all, reduce the reasons for watching TV to but
two: to be lulled, and to be stimulated. Some people do one sometimes,
the other sometimes. Some people do all of one or all of the other.
--Dick Cavett
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Dick_Cavett>