Gordian II
Encyclopedia
Gordian II was Roman Emperor
for one month with his father Gordian I
in 238, the Year of the Six Emperors
. Seeking to overthrow the Emperor Maximinus Thrax
, he died in battle outside of Carthage
.
. His family were of Equestrian rank, who were modest and very wealthy. Gordian was said to be related to prominent senators. His praenomen and nomen Marcus Antonius suggest that his paternal ancestors received Roman citizenship under the Triumvir Mark Antony
, or one of his daughters, during the late Roman Republic
. Gordian’s cognomen ‘Gordianus’ suggests that his family origins were from Anatolia
, especially Galatia
and Cappadocia
.
According to the notoriously unreliable Historia Augusta, his mother was a Roman woman called Fabia Orestilla
, born circa 165, who the Augustan History claims was a descendant of Roman Emperors Antoninus Pius
and Marcus Aurelius through her father Fulvus Antoninus. Modern historians have dismissed this name and her information as false. There is some evidence to suggest that Gordian's mother may have been the granddaughter of Greek Sophist, consul and tutor Herodes Atticus
. His younger sister was Antonia Gordiana
, who was the mother of Emperor Gordian III
.
Although the memory of the Gordians would have been cherished by the Senate and thus appear sympathetic in any Senatorial documentation of the period, the only account of Gordian's early career that has survived is contained within the Historia Augusta, and it cannot be taken as an accurate or reliable description of his life story prior to his elevation to the purple in 238. According to this source, Gordian served as quaestor
in Elagabalus
' reign and as praetor
and consul suffect
with Emperor Alexander Severus
. In 237, Gordian went to the Africa Proconsularis as a legatus
under his father's command as a proconsul
ar governor.
were assassinated by mutinous troops at Moguntiacum
in Germania Inferior
. The leader of the rebellion, Maximinus Thrax
, became Emperor, despite his low-born background and the disapproval of the Roman Senate
. Confronted by a local elite that had just killed Maximinus’ procurator
, Gordian's father was forced to participate in a full scale revolt against Maximinus in 238 and became Augustus
on March 22. Due to Gordian I's advanced age, the younger Gordian was attached to the imperial throne and acclaimed Augustus too. Like his father, he too was awarded the cognomen
Africanus.
Father and son saw their claim to the throne ratified both by the Senate and most of the other provinces, due to Maximinus' unpopularity.
Opposition would come from the neighbouring province of Numidia
. Capelianus
, governor of Numidia, a loyal supporter of Maximinus Thrax, and who held a grudge against Gordian, renewed his allegiance to the reigning emperor and invaded Africa province with the only legion stationing in the region, III Augusta
, and other veteran units. Gordian II, at the head of a militia army of untrained soldiers, lost the Battle of Carthage
and was killed. According to the Historia Augusta, his body was never recovered. Hearing the news, his father took his own life. This first rebellion against Maximinus Thrax was unsuccessful but, by the end of 238, Gordian II's nephew would be recognised emperor by the whole Roman world as Gordian III
.
Roman Emperor
The Roman emperor was the ruler of the Roman State during the imperial period . The Romans had no single term for the office although at any given time, a given title was associated with the emperor...
for one month with his father Gordian I
Gordian I
Gordian I , was Roman Emperor for one month 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 by forces loyal to Maximinus before committing suicide.-Early life:...
in 238, the Year of the Six Emperors
Year of the Six Emperors
The Year of the Six Emperors refers to the year 238, during which six people were recognised as emperors of Rome.The emperor at the beginning of the year was Maximinus Thrax, who had ruled since 235. Later sources claim he was a cruel tyrant, and in January 238 a revolt erupted in North Africa...
. Seeking to overthrow the Emperor Maximinus Thrax
Maximinus Thrax
Maximinus Thrax , also known as Maximinus I, was Roman Emperor from 235 to 238.Maximinus is described by several ancient sources, though none are contemporary except Herodian's Roman History. Maximinus was the first emperor never to set foot in Rome...
, he died in battle outside of Carthage
Carthage
Carthage , implying it was a 'new Tyre') is a major urban centre that has existed for nearly 3,000 years on the Gulf of Tunis, developing from a Phoenician colony of the 1st millennium BC...
.
Early career
Born c. 192, Gordian II was the only known son of Marcus Antonius Gordianus Sempronianus the ElderGordian I
Gordian I , was Roman Emperor for one month 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 by forces loyal to Maximinus before committing suicide.-Early life:...
. His family were of Equestrian rank, who were modest and very wealthy. Gordian was said to be related to prominent senators. His praenomen and nomen Marcus Antonius suggest that his paternal ancestors received Roman citizenship under the Triumvir Mark Antony
Mark Antony
Marcus Antonius , known in English as Mark Antony, was a Roman politician and general. As a military commander and administrator, he was an important supporter and loyal friend of his mother's cousin Julius Caesar...
, or one of his daughters, during the late Roman Republic
Roman Republic
The Roman Republic was the period of the ancient Roman civilization where the government operated as a republic. It began with the overthrow of the Roman monarchy, traditionally dated around 508 BC, and its replacement by a government headed by two consuls, elected annually by the citizens and...
. Gordian’s cognomen ‘Gordianus’ suggests that his family origins were from Anatolia
Anatolia
Anatolia is a geographic and historical term denoting the westernmost protrusion of Asia, comprising the majority of the Republic of Turkey...
, especially Galatia
Galatia
Ancient Galatia was an area in the highlands of central Anatolia in modern Turkey. Galatia was named for the immigrant Gauls from Thrace , who settled here and became its ruling caste in the 3rd century BC, following the Gallic invasion of the Balkans in 279 BC. It has been called the "Gallia" of...
and Cappadocia
Cappadocia
Cappadocia is a historical region in Central Anatolia, largely in Nevşehir Province.In the time of Herodotus, the Cappadocians were reported as occupying the whole region from Mount Taurus to the vicinity of the Euxine...
.
According to the notoriously unreliable Historia Augusta, his mother was a Roman woman called Fabia Orestilla
Fabia Orestilla
Fabia Orestilla was the great-granddaughter of Roman emperor Antoninus Pius and the wife of subsequent emperor Gordian I. She married him probably in 192 and had two sons and a daughter...
, born circa 165, who the Augustan History claims was a descendant of Roman Emperors Antoninus Pius
Antoninus Pius
Antoninus Pius , also known as Antoninus, was Roman Emperor from 138 to 161. He was a member of the Nerva-Antonine dynasty and the Aurelii. He did not possess the sobriquet "Pius" until after his accession to the throne...
and Marcus Aurelius through her father Fulvus Antoninus. Modern historians have dismissed this name and her information as false. There is some evidence to suggest that Gordian's mother may have been the granddaughter of Greek Sophist, consul and tutor Herodes Atticus
Herodes Atticus
Lucius Vibullius Hipparchus Tiberius Claudius Atticus Herodes, otherwise known as Herodes Atticus was a very distinguished, rich Greek aristocrat who served as a Roman Senator and a Sophist. He is notable as a proponent in the Second Sophistic by Philostratus.-Ancestry and Family:Herodes Atticus...
. His younger sister was Antonia Gordiana
Antonia Gordiana
Antonia Gordiana was a prominent, wealthy and noble Roman woman that lived in the troubled and unstable 3rd century. She was the daughter of Roman Emperor Gordian I; sister to Roman Emperor Gordian II and mother to Roman Emperor Gordian III...
, who was the mother of Emperor Gordian III
Gordian III
Gordian III , was Roman Emperor from 238 to 244. Gordian was the son of Antonia Gordiana and an unnamed Roman Senator who died before 238. Antonia Gordiana was the daughter of Emperor Gordian I and younger sister of Emperor Gordian II. Very little is known on his early life before his acclamation...
.
Although the memory of the Gordians would have been cherished by the Senate and thus appear sympathetic in any Senatorial documentation of the period, the only account of Gordian's early career that has survived is contained within the Historia Augusta, and it cannot be taken as an accurate or reliable description of his life story prior to his elevation to the purple in 238. According to this source, Gordian served as quaestor
Quaestor
A Quaestor was a type of public official in the "Cursus honorum" system who supervised financial affairs. In the Roman Republic a quaestor was an elected official whereas, with the autocratic government of the Roman Empire, quaestors were simply appointed....
in Elagabalus
Elagabalus
Elagabalus , also known as Heliogabalus, was Roman Emperor from 218 to 222. A member of the Severan Dynasty, he was Syrian on his mother's side, the son of Julia Soaemias and Sextus Varius Marcellus. Early in his youth he served as a priest of the god El-Gabal at his hometown, Emesa...
' reign and as praetor
Praetor
Praetor was a title granted by the government of Ancient Rome to men acting in one of two official capacities: the commander of an army, usually in the field, or the named commander before mustering the army; and an elected magistratus assigned varied duties...
and consul suffect
Consul
Consul was the highest elected office of the Roman Republic and an appointive office under the Empire. The title was also used in other city states and also revived in modern states, notably in the First French Republic...
with Emperor Alexander Severus
Alexander Severus
Severus Alexander was Roman Emperor from 222 to 235. Alexander was the last emperor of the Severan dynasty. He succeeded his cousin Elagabalus upon the latter's assassination in 222, and was ultimately assassinated himself, marking the epoch event for the Crisis of the Third Century — nearly fifty...
. In 237, Gordian went to the Africa Proconsularis as a legatus
Legatus
A legatus was a general in the Roman army, equivalent to a modern general officer. Being of senatorial rank, his immediate superior was the dux, and he outranked all military tribunes...
under his father's command as a proconsul
Proconsul
A proconsul was a governor of a province in the Roman Republic appointed for one year by the senate. In modern usage, the title has been used for a person from one country ruling another country or bluntly interfering in another country's internal affairs.-Ancient Rome:In the Roman Republic, a...
ar governor.
Revolt against Maximinus Thrax
Early in 235, Emperor Alexander Severus and his mother Julia Avita MamaeaJulia Avita Mamaea
Julia Avita Mamaea was the second daughter of Julia Maesa, a powerful Roman woman of Syrian origin and Syrian noble Julius Avitus. She was a niece of empress Julia Domna and emperor Septimius Severus and sister of Julia Soaemias...
were assassinated by mutinous troops at Moguntiacum
Mainz
Mainz under the Holy Roman Empire, and previously was a Roman fort city which commanded the west bank of the Rhine and formed part of the northernmost frontier of the Roman Empire...
in Germania Inferior
Germania Inferior
Germania Inferior was a Roman province located on the left bank of the Rhine, in today's Luxembourg, southern Netherlands, parts of Belgium, and North Rhine-Westphalia left of the Rhine....
. The leader of the rebellion, Maximinus Thrax
Maximinus Thrax
Maximinus Thrax , also known as Maximinus I, was Roman Emperor from 235 to 238.Maximinus is described by several ancient sources, though none are contemporary except Herodian's Roman History. Maximinus was the first emperor never to set foot in Rome...
, became Emperor, despite his low-born background and the disapproval of the Roman Senate
Roman Senate
The Senate of the Roman Republic was a political institution in the ancient Roman Republic, however, it was not an elected body, but one whose members were appointed by the consuls, and later by the censors. After a magistrate served his term in office, it usually was followed with automatic...
. Confronted by a local elite that had just killed Maximinus’ procurator
Procurator
Procurator may refer to:*Procurator , the title of various officials of the Roman Empire...
, Gordian's father was forced to participate in a full scale revolt against Maximinus in 238 and became Augustus
Augustus (honorific)
Augustus , Latin for "majestic," "the increaser," or "venerable", was an Ancient Roman title, which was first held by Gaius Julius Caesar Augustus , and subsequently came to be considered one of the titles of what are now known as the Roman Emperors...
on March 22. Due to Gordian I's advanced age, the younger Gordian was attached to the imperial throne and acclaimed Augustus too. Like his father, he too was awarded the cognomen
Roman naming conventions
By the Republican era and throughout the Imperial era, a name in ancient Rome for a male citizen consisted of three parts : praenomen , nomen and cognomen...
Africanus.
Father and son saw their claim to the throne ratified both by the Senate and most of the other provinces, due to Maximinus' unpopularity.
Opposition would come from the neighbouring province of Numidia
Numidia
Numidia was an ancient Berber kingdom in part of present-day Eastern Algeria and Western Tunisia in North Africa. It is known today as the Chawi-land, the land of the Chawi people , the direct descendants of the historical Numidians or the Massyles The kingdom began as a sovereign state and later...
. Capelianus
Capelianus
Capelianus was a Roman governor of the province of Numidia in the third century, and commander of the army that defeated and killed Gordian II in 238, the year of the six emperors....
, governor of Numidia, a loyal supporter of Maximinus Thrax, and who held a grudge against Gordian, renewed his allegiance to the reigning emperor and invaded Africa province with the only legion stationing in the region, III Augusta
Legio III Augusta
Legio tertia Augusta was raised in the year 43 BCE most likely by the consul Gaius Vibius Pansa and the emperor Augustus who served the Roman Empire in North Africa until at least the late 4th century CE. It is possible that it fought in the battle of Philippi against the murderers of Caesar...
, and other veteran units. Gordian II, at the head of a militia army of untrained soldiers, lost the Battle of Carthage
Battle of Carthage (238)
The Battle of Carthage was fought in 238 between a Roman army loyal to Emperor Maximinus Thrax and the forces of Emperors Gordian I and Gordian II....
and was killed. According to the Historia Augusta, his body was never recovered. Hearing the news, his father took his own life. This first rebellion against Maximinus Thrax was unsuccessful but, by the end of 238, Gordian II's nephew would be recognised emperor by the whole Roman world as Gordian III
Gordian III
Gordian III , was Roman Emperor from 238 to 244. Gordian was the son of Antonia Gordiana and an unnamed Roman Senator who died before 238. Antonia Gordiana was the daughter of Emperor Gordian I and younger sister of Emperor Gordian II. Very little is known on his early life before his acclamation...
.
Primary sources
- HerodianHerodianHerodian or Herodianus of Syria was a minor Roman civil servant who wrote a colourful history in Greek titled History of the Empire from the Death of Marcus in eight books covering the years 180 to 238. His work is not entirely reliable although his relatively unbiased account of Elagabalus is...
, Roman History, Book 7 - Historia Augusta, The Three Gordians
- Aurelius VictorAurelius VictorSextus Aurelius Victor was a historian and politician of the Roman Empire.Aurelius Victor was the author of a History of Rome from Augustus to Julian , published ca. 361. Julian honoured him and appointed him prefect of Pannonia Secunda...
, Epitome de Caesaribus - Joannes ZonarasJoannes ZonarasIoannes 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...
, Compendium of History extract: Zonaras: Alexander Severus to Diocletian: 222–284 - ZosimusZosimusZosimus was a Byzantine historian, who lived in Constantinople during the reign of the Byzantine Emperor Anastasius I . According to Photius, he was a comes, and held the office of "advocate" of the imperial treasury.- Historia Nova :...
, Historia Nova
Secondary sources
- Southern, Pat. The Roman Empire from Severus to Constantine, Routledge, 2001
- Syme, Ronald, Emperors and Biography, Oxford University Press, 1971
- Potter, David Stone, The Roman Empire at Bay, AD 180-395, Routledge, 2004
- Meckler, Michael L., Gordian II (238 A.D.), De Imperatoribus Romanis (2001)
- Gibbon. Edward Decline & Fall of the Roman Empire (1888)