The armies of Palmyra violently seize Egypt…
October 270 CE
The armies of Palmyra violently seize Egypt in late 270 with help from their Egyptian ally Timagenes (otherwise unknown to history) and his army.
The exact date of the invasion is disputed; Zosimus places it after the Battle of Naissus and before the death of emperor Claudius, which sets it in the summer of 270.
Other historians such as Watson have dismissed Zosimus' account, places the invasion in October 270.
According to Watson, the invasion of Egypt was an opportunistic move by the queen, encouraged by the news of Claudius' death in August.
The arrival of Palmyrene military on Egypt's eastern frontier coincides with, and perhaps even causes, unrest in Egypt, whose society is fractured between supporters and opponents among the divided population.
Aside from local Egyptian support, what makes matters worse for the Romans is the absence of Egypt's prefect, Tenagino Probus, currently preoccupied with naval expeditions against pirates, who are most likely Goths that raid the coasts of the Levant at this time.
Zosimus states that the Palmyrenes were helped by an Egyptian general named Timagenes during the invasion, and states that Zabdas moved into Egypt with seventy thousand soldiers, defeating an army of fifty thousand Romans.
After their victory, the Palmyrenes withdraw their main force and leave a five thousand-soldier garrison.
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