Maeonius or Maconius, was a short-lived Roman usurper

Roman usurper

Usurpers are individuals or groups of individuals who obtain and maintain the power or rights of another by force and without legal authority. Usurpation was endemic during roman imperial era, especially from the crisis of the third century onwards, when political instability became the rule.The...

. He is also known with the names of Odaenathus (Syncellus I p717) and Rufinus (Continuator of Cassius Dio frg. 166).

He was the nephew (according to Zonaras

Joannes Zonaras

Ioannes Zonaras was a Byzantine chronicler and theologian, who lived at Constantinople.Under Emperor Alexios I Komnenos he held the offices of head justice and private secretary to the emperor, but after Alexios' death, he retired to the monastery of St Glykeria, where he spent the rest of his...

 xii.24) or the cousin (according to Historia Augusta, which lists him among the Thirty Tyrants

Thirty Tyrants (Roman)

The Thirty Tyrants were a series of thirty rulers that appear in the Historia Augusta as having ostensibly been pretenders to the throne of the Roman Empire during the reign of the emperor Gallienus....

) of Odaenathus

Odaenathus

Lucius Septimius Odaenathus, Odenathus or Odenatus , the Latinized form of the Syriac Odainath, was a ruler of Palmyra, Syria and later of the short lived Palmyrene Empire, in the second half of the 3rd century, who succeeded in recovering the Roman East from the Persians and restoring it to the...

, who had taken control of the Eastern provinces after the defeat and capture of Emperor Valerian

Valerian (emperor)

Valerian , also known as Valerian the Elder, was Roman Emperor from 253 to 260. He was taken captive by Persian king Shapur I after the Battle of Edessa, becoming the only Roman Emperor who was captured as a prisoner of war, resulting in wide-ranging instability across the Empire.-Origins and rise...

 by Shapur I

Shapur I

Shapur I or also known as Shapur I the Great was the second Sassanid King of the Second Persian Empire. The dates of his reign are commonly given as 240/42 - 270/72, but it is likely that he also reigned as co-regent prior to his father's death in 242 .-Early years:Shapur was the son of Ardashir I...

 of the Sassanid Empire

Sassanid Empire

The Sassanid Empire , known to its inhabitants as Ērānshahr and Ērān in Middle Persian and resulting in the New Persian terms Iranshahr and Iran , was the last pre-Islamic Persian Empire, ruled by the Sasanian Dynasty from 224 to 651...

.

According to Historia Augusta, Maeonius killed Odaenathus and his son Hairan during a celebration, because of a conspiracy organized by Zenobia

Zenobia

Zenobia was a 3rd-century Queen of the Palmyrene Empire in Roman Syria. She led a famous revolt against the Roman Empire. The second wife of King Septimius Odaenathus, Zenobia became queen of the Palmyrene Empire following Odaenathus' death in 267...

, wife of Odaenathus, who wanted her sons to succeed her husband instead of Hairan (who was the son of Odaenathus by another woman); According to Gibbon, the murder was revenge for a short confinement imposed by Odaenathus to Maeonius for being unrespectful.

Zonaras tells that Maeonius was killed immediately after the murder of Odaenathus, while Historia has Maeonius proclaiming himself emperor, with Zenobia having had him soon killed, in order to take the power for herself.