Explanation: Queen Zenobia was the wife of Septimius Odaenathus, King of Palmyra (part of modern day Syria) and a Roman citizen. Despite being in an excellent position to carve out a good chunk of the Empire for himself, Odaenathus instead opted, in a time of crisis and decay of the Empire, to fight to recover imperial territories and rededicate the loyalties of the Palmyran Kingdom to the Empire and the reigning Emperor, even at the cost of great exertions and expenditure of manpower and materiel in war against the formidable forces of Sassanid Persia, which had defeated Rome several times in rapid succession. For this, he was highly praised by the Roman government, and showered with titles.
Now, while it is very fun, and probably not entirely unfair, to read an immense pro-Roman loyalty in Odaenathus's actions, the fact of the matter is that it was also wise from a practical standpoint to not pick an unnecessary fight with even a deeply weakened and fractured Roman Empire, and that many of the reconquests he took in the name of the Empire he did, himself, benefit from, as he was the one who got to administer them in the name of Rome.
Odaenathus was assassinated at the height of his power, along with his first son, with various suspects speculated on, but we will probably never know the truth of the matter. The fact that Queen Zenobia benefitted significantly by becoming regent for her son (as Odaenathus's first son was by a previous wife) and pursuing an anti-Roman policy has made her a prominent suspect, but court politics are so vicious and multifaceted that she might very well have been innocent.
Queen Zenobia then attempted (and succeeded) at claiming most of the eastern portion of the Roman Empire for herself and her son, until the Emperor Aurelian reunited the Empire by force, capturing her and her son and displaying them in Triumph in Rome. Glory to Emperor Aurelian, Restitutor Orbis - the Restorer of the World!