Gordian III

• 1. Introduction

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  Gordian III became Roman emperor at the age of thirteen, making him the second-youngest sole ruler the unified empire had ever seen. The year was 238 AD, and Rome had already burned through a bewildering succession of rulers in a single chaotic year. How did a child end up holding the most powerful office in the ancient world? And once he got there, who was actually in charge? The answers reveal a Rome under pressure from every direction: Germanic tribes pushing across the Rhine and Danube, the rising Sassanid Empire striking across the Euphrates, earthquakes swallowing cities whole, and palace politics quietly deciding whether the young emperor would live or die.

• 2. Year of Chaos

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  238 AD opened with a rebellion in the Africa Province. Gordian's grandfather and uncle, Gordian I and Gordian II, were proclaimed joint emperors there. The governor of Numidia, Cappellianus, crushed that revolt within a month on behalf of the sitting emperor Maximinus Thrax.

  The Senate had grown hostile to Maximinus after his rise to power in 235, when he was acclaimed emperor following the murder of Alexander Severus at Moguntiacum, the modern German city of Mainz. The senators elected their own pair of joint emperors, Pupienus and Balbinus, and then, sensing their own unpopularity with the Roman people, raised the thirteen-year-old Marcus Antonius Gordianus to the rank of Caesar.

  Maximinus moved fast to crush the Senate's challenge, but an Alpine winter slowed his army. He reached Aquileia and laid siege to the city, but his supply lines were thin and the weeks dragged on. After four weeks, his demoralized soldiers mutinied. The Legio II Parthica killed Maximinus, removing the threat entirely.

  Yet Pupienus and Balbinus could not hold on. Popular riots, military discontent, and an enormous fire consuming Rome eroded their brief rule. The Praetorian Guard killed them both, and in approximately August of that year Gordian was proclaimed sole emperor. He was still thirteen years old.

• 3. Power Behind the Throne

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  Because of Gordian's youth, real authority passed quickly to the aristocratic families who managed Roman affairs through the Senate. A revolt by a man named Sabinianus shook the African province in 240 but was put down without lasting consequence.

  The decisive shift in Gordian's reign came in 241, when he married Furia Sabinia Tranquillina. She was the daughter of Timesitheus, who had just been appointed praetorian prefect. As both head of the Praetorian Guard and father-in-law to the emperor, Timesitheus became the de facto ruler of the Roman Empire. Gordian's reign had a regent in everything but name.

  Timesitheus did not outlive his grip on power for long. During the eastern campaign against the Sassanids, he died under circumstances that remain unclear to this day. His death left a vacuum that two men quickly moved to fill: Gaius Julius Priscus, and then Priscus's own brother, Marcus Julius Philippus, better known to history as Philip the Arab, who took the role of Praetorian Prefect.

• 4. War at the Edges

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  By the third century, Rome's frontiers were under sustained pressure. Germanic tribes pressed across the Rhine and Danube while the Sassanid Empire intensified its campaigns across the Euphrates.

  When the Sassanids under Shapur I invaded Mesopotamia, Gordian responded with a gesture that carried enormous symbolic weight. He opened the doors of the Temple of Janus, an act that formally declared the empire at war. According to Roman sources, it would be the last time in Roman history those doors were opened.

  Gordian joined the army himself and sent a large force east. The campaign went well at first. The Sassanids were driven back across the Euphrates and defeated at the Battle of Resaena in 243. With momentum on his side, Gordian was already planning a deeper invasion into enemy territory when Timesitheus died. The loss of his father-in-law and chief administrator placed both the campaign and the emperor's personal safety in jeopardy. Gordian had boasted to the Senate about the success at Resaena. Those boasts would soon look premature.

  Around February 244, the Sassanids fought back fiercely near Ctesiphon, halting the Roman advance and setting the stage for the final ambiguity of Gordian's short life.

• 5. A Death in Dispute

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  The exact fate of Gordian III has been argued over ever since the ancient sources themselves disagreed about it. He most likely died at the Battle of Misiche, but even that is not certain.

  An inscription erected by Shapur I claims a battle near the site of modern Fallujah, in Iraq, ended in a major Roman defeat and the death of Gordian. Philip, the inscription says, then bought peace from the Sassanids for 500,000 dinars. Roman sources tell a different story: that the soldiers proclaimed Philip emperor, that Philip made peace with Shapur on terms that Roman writers described as shameful, and that Gordian died as the army was withdrawing westward. The writer Zonaras adds a more specific detail, that Gordian fell from his horse during battle. One scholarly reading holds that Gordian was killed at a place called Zaitha, murdered by his own frustrated soldiers, with Philip's precise role left unknown.

  Modern scholarly analyses have generally leaned toward the Sassanid account as superior to the Roman version, even granting its own defects. The Roman version offers no satisfying explanation for why a victorious army would have needed to negotiate on disadvantageous terms.

  What happened to the body afterwards is also contested. David S. Potter's account holds that Philip transported Gordian's remains to Rome and arranged for his deification. Edwell, Dodgeon, and Lieu argue instead that Philip buried Gordian at Zaitha, after the campaign against the Sassanids had collapsed. The young emperor who opened the doors of the Temple of Janus could not be certain, in death, of even the ground beneath him.