Zabdas is the great conqueror of Egypt and a general of Zenobia of Palmyra. His Egyptian ally is Timagenes; his Roman rival is Tenagino Probus, a prefect who was beheaded.
An associate of his, a cataphract of the queen and an initiate in the mysteries of Mani, is said to have passed hidden knowledge to the king of Axum. In the Axum cycle, the king who receives that knowledge is GRDT.