Gordian I

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Template:Short description Template:Use dmy dates Template:Infobox royalty Template:Year of Six Emperors Gordian I (Template:Langx; Template:Circa 158 – April 238) was Roman emperor for 22 days with his son Gordian II in 238, the Year of the Six Emperors. Caught up in a rebellion against the Emperor Maximinus Thrax, he was defeated in battle and committed suicide after the death of his son, having had the second shortest reign in imperial history.

Family and background

Gordian I was said to be related to prominent senators of his time.Template:Sfn His praenomen and nomen Marcus Antonius suggested that his paternal ancestors received Roman citizenship under the triumvir Mark Antony, or one of his daughters, during the late Roman Republic.Template:Sfn Gordian's cognomen ‘Gordianus’ also indicates that his family origins were from Anatolia, more specifically Galatia or Cappadocia.[1]

According to the Historia Augusta, his mother was a Roman woman called Ulpia Gordiana and his father was the senator Maecius Marullus.[2] Many modern historians have dismissed his father's name as false, but PIR2 proposes that Maecius Marullus be identified as the son of a prominent Corinthian politician, Maecius Faustinus.[3]

There may be some truth behind the Historia Augusta's identification of his mother. Gordian's family history can be guessed through inscriptions. The names Sempronianus Romanus in his name, for instance, may indicate a connection to his mother or grandmother. In Ankara, Turkey, a funeral inscription has been found that names a Sempronia Romana, daughter of a named Sempronius Aquila (an imperial secretary).Template:Sfn Sempronia Romana erected this undated funeral inscription to her husband (whose name is lost), who died as a praetor-designate.Template:Sfn French historian Christian Settipani has conjectured that Gordian I's parents were Marcus Antonius Gordianus (born Template:Circa 135), tr. pl. (tribunus plebis), praet. des. (praetor designatus, and wife Sempronia Romana (born Template:Circa 140), daughter of Titus Flavius Sempronius Aquila (Template:Circa 115), Secretarius ab epistulis Graecis, and wife Claudia (Template:Circa 120), daughter of an unknown father and his wife Claudia Tisamenis (Template:Circa 100), sister of Herodes Atticus.[4] It appears in this family tree that the person who was related to Herodes Atticus was Gordian I's mother or grandmother and not his wife.Template:Sfn But Anthony Birley stated that the question remains open.Template:Sfn

Also according to the Historia Augusta, the wife of Gordian I was a Roman woman called Fabia Orestilla,[5] born circa 165, whom the Historia Augusta claims was a descendant of emperors Antoninus Pius and Marcus Aurelius through her father Fulvus Antoninus.[5][6] Modern historians have dismissed this name and her information as false.Template:Sfn His wife died before 238. Christian Settipani identified her parents as Marcus Annius Severus, who was a suffect consul, and his wife Silvana, born circa 140, who was the daughter of Lucius Plautius Lamia Silvanus and his wife Aurelia Fadilla, the daughter of Antoninus Pius and wife Annia Galeria Faustina or Faustina the Elder.[4]

With his wife, Gordian I had at least two children: a son of the same name[7] and a daughter, called by Historia Augusta Maecia Faustina (who was the mother of the future Emperor Gordian III).[8]

Early life

Gordian steadily climbed the Roman imperial hierarchy when he became part of the Roman Senate. His political career started relatively late in his lifeTemplate:Sfn and his early years were probably spent in rhetoric and literary studies.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn As a military man, Gordian commanded the Legio IV Scythica when the legion was stationed in Syria.Template:Sfn He served as governor of Roman Britain in 216 and was a suffect consul sometime during the reign of Elagabalus.Template:Sfn Inscriptions in Roman Britain bearing his name were partially erased suggesting some form of imperial displeasure during this role.Template:Sfn

While he gained unbounded popularity on account of the magnificent games and shows he produced as aedile,[9] his prudent and retired life did not excite the suspicion of Caracalla, in whose honor he wrote a long epic poem called "Antoninias".Template:Sfn[10][11] Gordian certainly retained his wealth and political clout during the chaotic times of the Severan dynasty which suggests a personal dislike for intrigue. Philostratus dedicated his work Lives of the Sophists to either him or his son, Gordian II.[12]

Rise to power

File:Gordian I Musei Capitolini MC475.jpg
Early 3rd-century portrait head on a modern bust, labeled as Gordian I in the Capitoline Museums, Rome. The identification is uncertain.[13][14]
File:Tunis Bardo Buste 2.jpg
Bust of an emperor in the Bardo National Museum (Tunis) labeled as Gordian I. Some authors call him Decius.[15]

During the reign of Alexander Severus, Gordian I (who was by then in his late sixties), after serving his suffect consulship prior to 223, drew lots for the proconsular governorship of the province of Africa ProconsularisTemplate:Sfn[16] which he assumed in 237.Template:Sfn However, prior to the commencement of his promagistrature, Maximinus Thrax killed Alexander Severus at Mogontiacum in Germania Inferior and assumed the throne.[17]

Maximinus was not a popular emperor and universal discontent increased due to his oppressive rule.[18] It culminated in a revolt in Africa in 238 (the exact month is unknown).[19] After Maximinus' fiscal curator was murdered in a riot, people turned to Gordian and demanded that he accept the dangerous honor of the imperial throne.Template:Sfn Gordian, who was about 80 years according to Herodian, eventually yielded to the popular clamour and assumed both the purple and the cognomen "Africanus".[16]

According to Edward Gibbon:

An iniquitous sentence had been pronounced against some opulent youths of [Africa], the execution of which would have stripped them of far the greater part of their patrimony. (...) A respite of three days, obtained with difficulty from the rapacious treasurer, was employed in collecting from their estates a great number of slaves and peasants blindly devoted to the commands of their lords and armed with the rustic weapons of clubs and axes. The leaders of the conspiracy, as they were admitted to the audience of the procurator, stabbed him with the daggers concealed under their garments, and, by the assistance of their tumultuary train, seized on the little town of Thysdrus, and erected the standard of rebellion against the sovereign of the Roman empire. (...) Gordianus, their proconsul, and the object of their choice [as emperor], refused, with unfeigned reluctance, the dangerous honour, and begged with tears that they should suffer him to terminate in peace a long and innocent life, without staining his feeble age with civil blood. Their menaces compelled him to accept the Imperial purple, his only refuge indeed against the jealous cruelty of Maximin (...).[20]

Due to his advanced age, he insisted that his son be associated with him. A few days later, Gordian entered the city of Carthage with the overwhelming support of the population and local political leaders.[21] Gordian I sent assassins to kill Maximinus' praetorian prefect, Publius Aelius Vitalianus,[22] and the rebellion seemed to be successful.[23] Gordian, in the meantime, had sent an embassy to Rome, under the leadership of Publius Licinius Valerianus,[24] to obtain the Senate's support for his rebellion.[23] The Senate confirmed the new emperor and many of the provinces gladly sided with Gordian.[25] This event is sometimes dated to 2 April, but this is only based on a passage of the Historia Augusta, nowadays considered highly unreliable, that told about an eclipse presaging the imminent fall of the Gordians.[26]

Opposition came from the neighboring province of Numidia.Template:Sfn Capelianus, governor of Numidia and a loyal supporter of Maximinus Thrax, held a grudge against Gordian[25] and invaded the African province with the only legion stationed in the region, III Augusta, and other veteran units.[27] Gordian II, at the head of a militia army of untrained soldiers, lost the Battle of Carthage and was killed,[25] and Gordian I killed himself by hanging himself with his belt.[28] The Gordians had ruled only 22 days,[29][30][31] the shortest reign of any Roman emperor.Template:Efn Gordian I was also the first emperor to commit suicide since Otho in 69 during the Year of the Four Emperors.

Legacy

Gordian's positive reputation can be attributed to his reportedly amiable character. Both he and his son were said to be fond of literature, even publishing their own voluminous works.[20] While they were strongly interested in intellectual pursuits, they possessed neither the necessary skills nor resources to be considered able statesmen or powerful rulers. Having embraced the cause of Gordian, the Senate was obliged to continue the revolt against Maximinus following Gordian's death, appointing Pupienus and Balbinus as joint emperors.Template:Sfn Nevertheless, by the end of 238, the recognised emperor would be Gordian III, Gordian I's maternal grandson.Template:Sfn

Family tree

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Notes

Template:Notelist

References

Template:Reflist

Sources

Ancient sources

Modern sources

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  • Gibbon, Edward, Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (1888)
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  • Potter, David Stone, The Roman Empire at Bay, AD 180–395, Routledge, 2004
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  • Syme, Ronald, Emperors and Biography, Oxford University Press, 1971

External links

Template:Sister project

Template:S-endTemplate:Roman emperorsTemplate:PharaohsTemplate:Authority control
Regnal titles
Preceded byTemplate:S-bef/check Roman emperor
238
With: Gordian II Template:S-ttl/check 		Template:S-aft/check Succeeded by
  1. ↑ Peuch, Bernadette, "Orateurs et sophistes grecs dans les inscriptions d'époque impériale", (2002), pg. 128
  2. ↑ Cite error: Invalid <ref> tag; no text was provided for refs named Historia Augusta, The Three Gordians, 2:2
  3. ↑ PIR2 V pp 138-139
  4. ↑ a b Cite error: Invalid <ref> tag; no text was provided for refs named ReferenceA
  5. ↑ a b Cite error: Invalid <ref> tag; no text was provided for refs named Historia Augusta, The Three Gordians, 17:4
  6. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  7. ↑ Historia Augusta, The Three Gordians, 17:1
  8. ↑ Historia Augusta, The Three Gordians, 4:2
  9. ↑ Historia Augusta, The Three Gordians, 3:5
  10. ↑ Historia Augusta, The Three Gordians, 3:3
  11. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  12. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  13. ↑ H. Stuart Jones (1912), A Catalogue of the Ancient Sculptures Preserved in the Municipal Collections of Rome: The Sculptures of the Museo Capitolino, p. 207, no. 64. "This head bears the traditional name of Gordian I. It is, however, too young for him, and is not like his coin-portraits."
  14. ↑ The traditional identification of this portrait as Gordian I is uncertain; if correct, it was probably created about a decade before his accession to the throne. See K. Fittschen & P. Zanker (1985). Katalog der römischen Porträts in den Capitolinischen Museen und den anderen kommunalen Sammlungen der Stadt Rom I: Kaiser- und Prinzenbildnisse, Mainz: Philipp von Zabern, pp. 123–124, no. 104, for a summary of opinions on the date and identification.
  15. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  16. ↑ a b Herodian, 7:5
  17. ↑ Potter, pg. 167
  18. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  19. ↑ Herodian, 7:4. "After Maximinus had completed three years as emperor [after 22 March 238], the people of Africa first took up arms and touched off a serious revolt for one of those trivial reasons which often prove fatal to a tyrant."
  20. ↑ a b Gibbon, Vol. I, Ch. 7
  21. ↑ Herodian, 7:6:2
  22. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  23. ↑ a b Potter, pg. 169
  24. ↑ Zosimus, 1:11
  25. ↑ a b c Potter, pg. 170
  26. ↑ Cite error: Invalid <ref> tag; no text was provided for refs named Rea
  27. ↑ Herodian, 7.9.3
  28. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  29. ↑ Filocalus, Chronograph of 354, Part 16: "The two Gordians ruled for 20 days. They died in Africa."
  30. ↑ Laterculus Imperatorum Malalianus (7th century): "Gordian ruled 22 days; the other Gordian reigned 20 years" (a mistake for "20 days").
  31. ↑ Symeon Logothete (Template:Circa 970), Chronographia, CSHB, 75. "Maximus and Balbinus ruled 22 days", actually the two Gordians. This is followed by Zonaras (Template:Circa 1120) Epitome xvii.17: "According to some they reigned about twenty-two days, but according to others not quite three months".
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