Gordian III – Roman Emperor: 238-244 A.D.
Gordian III & Tranquillina
Bronze 30mm (21.76 grams) of Singara in Mesopotamia
Reference: SNG Copenhagen 256; BMC 8-11
ΑΥΤΟ Κ Μ ΑΝΤ ΓΟΡΔΙΑΝΟN CΑΒ ΤΡΑΝΚΥΛΛΙΝΑ CЄΒ, Confronted busts of Gordian right, laureate, draped, and cuirassed, and Tranquillina left, draped and wearing stephane.
ΑΥΡ CЄΠ ΚΟΛ ΣΙΝΓΑΡΑ, Tyche seated left on rocks, holding branch; above, centaur (Sagittarius) leaping left, shooting bow; to lower left, half-length figure of river-god Mygdonius swimming left.

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Singara (Greek: τὰ Σίγγαρα) was a strongly fortified post at the northern extremity of Mesopotamia, which for a while, as appears from coins found, was occupied by the Romans as an advanced colony against the Persians. It was the camp of Parthica I legio.

Its position, south-east of Nisibis, has not been clearly defined by ancient writers, Stephanus of Byzantium calling it a city of Arabia, near Edessa, and Ptolemy placing it on the Tigris. There can, however, be no doubt that it and the mountain near it, called by Ptolemy ὸ Σίγγαρας ὄρος, are represented at the present day by the district of the Singar (in modern-day Iraq).

It was first taken by the Romans during Trajan‘s eastern campaigns, when general Lusius Quietus captured the city without a fight in the winter of 114; Although it was abandoned following the Roman withdrawal from Mesopotamia in 117, the city became once again part of the Roman Empire with the Parthian campaign of Septimius Severus in 197. The city was raised by Severus to the status of a Roman colony, as is attested by the legend found on some of the coins minted there during the reign of Gordian III: ΑΥΡ. CΕΠ. ΚΟΛ. CΙΝΓΑΡΑ., which is Greek script for the city’s Latin name, Aurelia Septimia Colonia Singara. It remained one of the easternmost outposts of the Roman Empire throughout the 3rd century. It was the scene of a celebrated nocturnal conflict during a siege of the city in 344 by Sassanid King Shapur II, the result of which was so unsatisfactory that both sides claimed the victory.) Still later, in 359/360, during the reign of Constantius II, it is recorded that it underwent a celebrated siege, and at length was carried by the Persians by storm, though gallantly defended by the townspeople and two legions. The country around it is stated by Ammianus Marcellinus and Theophylact Simocatta to have been extremely arid, which rendered it equally difficult to take or to relieve from a distance.

Tyche (Greek for luck; the Roman equivalent was Fortuna) was the presiding tutelary deity that governed the fortune and prosperity of a city, its destiny. Increasingly during the Hellenistic period, cities had their own specific iconic version of Tyche, wearing a mural crown (a crown like the walls of the city).

The Greek historian Polybius believed that when no cause can be discovered to events such as floods, droughts, frosts or even in politics, then the cause of these events may be fairly attributed to Tyche.

Stylianos Spyridakis  concisely expressed Tyche’s appeal in a Hellenistic world of arbitrary violence and unmeaning reverses: “In the turbulent years of the Epigoni of Alexander, an awareness of the instability of human affairs led people to believe that Tyche, the blind mistress of Fortune, governed mankind with an inconstancy which explained the vicissitudes of the time.”

In literature, she might be given various genealogies, as a daughter of Hermes and Aphrodite, or considered as one of the Oceanids, daughters of Oceanus and Tethys, or of Zeus. She was connected with Nemesis and Agathos Daimon (“good spirit”).

She was uniquely venerated at Itanos in Crete, as Tyche Protogeneia, linked with the Athenian Protogeneia (“firstborn”), daughter of Erechtheus, whose self-sacrifice saved the city.

She had temples at Caesarea Maritima, Antioch, Alexandria and Constantinople. In Alexandria the Tychaeon, the temple of Tyche, was described by Libanius as one of the most magnificent of the entire Hellenistic world.

Tyche appears on many coins of the Hellenistic period in the three centuries before the Christian era, especially from cities in the Aegean. Unpredictable turns of fortune drive the complicated plotlines of Hellenistic romances, such as Leucippe and Clitophon or Daphnis and Chloe. She experienced a resurgence in another era of uneasy change, the final days of publicly sanctioned Paganism, between the late-fourth-century emperors Julian and Theodosius I who definitively closed the temples. The effectiveness of her capricious power even achieved respectability in philosophical circles during that generation, though among poets it was a commonplace to revile her for a fickle harlot.

In medieval art, she was depicted as carrying a cornucopia, an emblematic ship’s rudder, and the wheel of fortune, or she may stand on the wheel, presiding over the entire circle of fate.

The constellation of Virgo is sometimes identified as the heavenly figure of Tyche, as well as other goddesses such as Demeter and Astraea.

Furia Sabinia Tranquillina or Sabinia Tranquillina (ca 225 – aft. 244) was the Empress of Rome and wife of Emperor Gordian III. She was the young daughter of the Praetorian Prefect Timesitheus by an unknown wife.

In 241 her father was appointed the head of the Praetorian Guard by the Roman Emperor Gordian III. In May that year, Tranquillina had married Gordian. She became a Roman Empress and received the honorific title of Augusta. Her marriage to Gordian was an admission by the young emperor of both political indispensability of Timesitheus and Tranquillina’s suitability as an empress.

In 243, Tranquillina’s father suddenly died and was replaced with Philip the Arab, as head of the Praetorian Guard. When Gordian was killed in February 244, Philip became the new emperor. Tranquillina survived her husband. She had no sons with him. Christian Settipani suggests that they had a daughter, (Furia) (b. ca 244), most likely posthumous, who married (Marcus Maecius Orfitus) (b. ca 245), son of Marcus Maecius Probus (b. ca 220), married to Pupiena Sextia Paulina Cethegilla (b. ca 225), paternal grandson of Marcus Pomponius Maecius Probus and maternal grandson of Marcus Pupienus Africanus (son of his protector Emperor Pupienus Maximus) and wife Cornelia Marullina, by whom she had issue.

Gordian III – Roman Emperor: 238-244 A.D.

Caesar: 238 A.D. (under Balbinus and Pupienus)
Augustus: 238-244 A.D.

| Grandson of Gordian I | Nephew of Gordian II | Adopted Successor of Balbinus and Pupienus | Husband of Tranquillina |

Marcus Antonius Gordianus Pius (January 20, 225 – February 11, 244), known in English as Gordian III, was Roman Emperor from 238 to 244. Gordian was the son of Antonia Gordiana and his father was 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 becoming Roman Emperor. Gordian had assumed the name of his maternal grandfather in 238.

Following the murder of emperor Alexander Severus in Moguntiacum (modern Mainz), the capital of the Roman province Germania Inferior, Maximinus Thrax was acclaimed emperor, despite strong opposition of the Roman senate and the majority of the population. In response to what was considered in Rome as a rebellion, Gordian’s grandfather and uncle, Gordian I and II, were proclaimed joint emperors in the Africa Province. Their revolt was suppressed within a month by Cappellianus, governor of Numidia and a loyal supporter of Maximinus Thrax. The elder Gordians died, but public opinion cherished their memory as peace loving and literate men, victims of Maximinus’ oppression.

Meanwhile, Maximinus was on the verge of marching on Rome and the Senate elected Pupienus and Balbinus as joint emperors. These senators were not popular men and the population of Rome was still shocked by the elder Gordian’s fate, so that the Senate decided to take the teenager Gordian, rename him Marcus Antonius Gordianus as his grandfather, and raise him to the rank of Caesar and imperial heir. Pupienus and Balbinus defeated Maximinus, mainly due to the defection of several legions, namely the ParthicaII who assassinated Maximinus. But their joint reign was doomed from the start with popular riots, military discontent and even an enormous fire that consumed Rome in June 238. On July 29, Pupienus and Balbinus were killed by the Praetorian guard and Gordian proclaimed sole emperor.

Rule

Due to Gordian’s age, the imperial government was surrendered to the aristocratic families, who controlled the affairs of Rome through the senate. In 240, Sabinianus revolted in the African province, but the situation was dealt quickly. In 241, Gordian was married to Furia Sabinia Tranquillina, daughter of the newly appointed praetorian prefect, Timesitheus. As chief of the Praetorian guard and father in law of the emperor, Timesitheus quickly became the de facto ruler of the Roman empire.

In the 3rd century, the Roman frontiers weakened against the Germanic tribes across the Rhine and Danube, and the Sassanid kingdom across the Euphrates increased its own attacks. When the Persians under Shapur I invaded Mesopotamia, the young emperor opened the doors of the Temple of Janus for the last time in Roman history, and sent a huge army to the East. The Sassanids were driven back over the Euphrates and defeated in the Battle of Resaena (243). The campaign was a success and Gordian, who had joined the army, was planning an invasion of the enemy’s territory, when his father-in-law died in unclear circumstances. Without Timesitheus, the campaign, and the emperor’s security, were at risk.

Marcus Julius Philippus, also known as Philip the Arab, stepped in at this moment as the new Praetorian Prefect and the campaign proceeded. In the beginning of 244, the Persians counter-attacked. Persian sources claim that a battle was fought (Battle of Misiche) near modern Fallujah (Iraq) and resulted in a major Roman defeat and the death of Gordian III. Roman sources do not mention this battle and suggest that Gordian died far away, upstream of the Euphrates. Although ancient sources often described Philip, who succeeded Gordian as emperor, as having murdered Gordian at Zaitha (Qalat es Salihiyah), the cause of Gordian’s death is unknown.

Gordian’s youth and good nature, along with the deaths of his grandfather and uncle and his own tragic fate at the hands of another usurper, granted him the everlasting esteem of the Romans. Despite the opposition of the new emperor, Gordian was deified by the Senate after his death, in order to appease the population and avoid riots.