| Balbinus | |||||||||
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 Bust, Hermitage Museum | |||||||||
| Roman emperor | |||||||||
| Reign | April/May – July/August 238 [1] | ||||||||
| Predecessor | Gordian I and II | ||||||||
| Successor | Gordian III | ||||||||
| Co-emperor | Pupienus | ||||||||
| Rival | Maximinus (until June) | ||||||||
| Born | c. 178 [2] | ||||||||
| Died | 238 (aged approx. 60) Rome, Italy | ||||||||
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| Part of a series on Roman imperial dynasties |
| Year of the Six Emperors |
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| AD 238 |
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Decimus Caelius Calvinus Balbinus [3] (died 238 AD) was Roman emperor with Pupienus for three months in 238, the Year of the Six Emperors.
Not much is known about Balbinus before his elevation to emperor. It has been conjectured that he descended from Publius Coelius Balbinus Vibullius Pius, the consul ordinarius of 137, and wife Aquilia. If this were true, he was also related to the family of Q. Pompeius Falco, which supplied many politicians of consular rank throughout the 3rd century, and to the 1st-century politician, engineer and author Julius Frontinus. He was born around 178. [4] He was a patrician from birth, and was the son (either by birth or adoption) of Caelius Calvinus, who was legate of Cappadocia in 184. He was one of the Salii priests of Mars. [5] According to Herodian he had governed provinces, but the list of seven provinces given in the unreliable Historia Augusta, as well as the statement that Balbinus had been both Proconsul of Asia and of Africa, are likely to be mere invention.[ citation needed ] He had certainly been twice consul; his first consulate is not certainly known but is believed to have been about 203 or in July 211; he was consul for the second time in 213 as colleague of Caracalla, which suggests he enjoyed that emperor's favour.
According to Edward Gibbon (drawing upon the narratives of Herodian and the Historia Augusta ):
Balbinus was an admired orator, a poet of distinguished fame, and a wise magistrate, who had exercised with innocence and applause the civil jurisdiction in almost all the interior provinces of the empire. His birth was noble, his fortune affluent, his manners liberal and affable. In him, the love of pleasure was corrected by a sense of dignity, nor had the habits of ease deprived him of a capacity for business. (...) The two colleagues [Pupienus and Balbinus] had both been consul (Balbinus had twice enjoyed that honourable office), both had been named among the twenty lieutenants of the senate; and, since the one was sixty and the other seventy-four years old, they had both attained the full maturity of age and experience. [6]
On the news of the Gordians' defeat, the Senate voted Pupienus and Balbinus as co-emperors in April 238, though they were soon forced to co-opt the child Gordian III as a colleague. [4] Unlike the situation in 161, both emperors were elected as pontifices maximi , chief priests of the official cults. [7] This would be unthinkable in Republican times. Balbinus was probably in his early seventies: his qualifications for rule are unknown, except presumably that he was a senior senator, rich and well-connected. While Pupienus marched to Ravenna, where he oversaw the campaign against Maximinus, Balbinus remained in Rome, but failed to keep public order. The sources suggest that after Pupienus's victorious return following Maximinus' death, Balbinus and Pupienus began to distrust each other. They were soon assassinated by disaffected elements of the Praetorian Guard; Pupienus attempted to warn Balbinus of the plot, but the latter thought that the guard would instead secure the throne for himself. [8]
The 'sarcophagus of Balbinus' has earned this Emperor a niche in the history of Roman Imperial art. Presumably while holding the title of Emperor, Balbinus had a marble sarcophagus made for himself and his wife (whose name is unknown). Discovered in fragments near the Via Appia and restored, this is the only example of a Roman Imperial sarcophagus of this type to have survived. On the lid are reclining figures of Balbinus and his wife, the figure of the Emperor also being a fine portrait of him. The sarcophagus is held in collection at the Museo di Pretastato (at the catacombs of Praetextatus) in the Park of the Caffarella near the Appian Way at Rome.
Although in accounts of their joint reign Balbinus is emphasized as the civilian as against Pupienus the military man, on the side of the sarcophagus he is portrayed in full military dress.
| Maximinus Thrax Roman Emperor 235-238 | Gordian I Roman Emperor 238 | Pupienus Roman Emperor 238 | Philip the Arab Roman Emperor 244-249 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Gaius Julius Verus Maximus caesar | Gordian II co-emperor 238 | Antonia Gordiana |  Balbinus Roman Emperor 238 | Philip II co-emperor 247-249 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Gordian III Roman Emperor 238-244 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
The 230s decade ran from January 1, 230, to December 31, 239.
Year 238 (CCXXXVIII) was a common year starting on Monday of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Pius and Pontianus. The denomination 238 for this year has been used since the early medieval period, when the Anno Domini calendar era became the prevalent method in Europe for naming years.
The Crisis of the Third Century, also known as the Military Anarchy or the Imperial Crisis (235–285), was a period in which the Roman Empire nearly collapsed. The crisis ended due to the military victories of Aurelian and with the accession of Diocletian and his implementation of reforms.
Gordian III was Roman emperor from 238 to 244. At the age of 13, he became the youngest sole emperor of the united Roman Empire. Gordian was the son of Antonia Gordiana and Junius Balbus, who died before 238. Antonia Gordiana was the daughter of Emperor Gordian I and younger sister of Emperor Gordian II. Very little is known of his early life before his acclamation. Gordian had assumed the name of his maternal grandfather in 238.
Gordian I 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 by forces loyal to Maximinus, and he committed suicide after the death of his son.
Gordian II was Roman emperor with his father Gordian I in 238 AD, the Year of the Six Emperors. Seeking to overthrow Maximinus Thrax, he died in battle outside Carthage. Since he died before his father, Gordian II had the shortest reign of any Roman emperor, at 22 days.
Marcus Clodius Pupienus Maximus was Roman emperor with Balbinus for 99 days in 238, during the Year of the Six Emperors. The sources for this period are scant, and thus knowledge of the emperor is limited. In most contemporary texts he is referred to by his cognomen "Maximus" rather than by his second nomen Pupienus.
Herodian or Herodianus of Syria, sometimes referred to as "Herodian of Antioch", 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 considered entirely reliable, although his less biased account of Elagabalus may be more useful than that of Cassius Dio. Herodian himself may have been a Syrian, though he appears to have lived for a considerable period of time in Rome, possibly without holding any public office. From his extant work, it seems that he was still living at an advanced age during the reign of Gordianus III, who ascended the throne in 238. Beyond this, nothing is known of his life.
Thysdrus was a Carthaginian town and Roman colony near present-day El Djem, Tunisia. Under the Romans, it was the center of olive oil production in the provinces of Africa and Byzacena and was quite prosperous. The surviving amphitheater is a World Heritage Site.
The Battle of Carthage was fought in 238 AD between a Roman army loyal to Emperor Maximinus Thrax and the forces of Emperors Gordian I and Gordian II.
The Year of the Six Emperors was the year AD 238, during which six men made claims to be emperors of Rome. This was an early symptom of what historians now call the Crisis of the Third Century, also known as Military Anarchy or the Imperial Crisis, a period in which the Roman Empire nearly collapsed under the combined pressures of foreign invasions and migrations into the Roman territory, civil wars, peasant rebellions, political instability, Roman reliance on foreign mercenaries known as foederati and commanders nominally working for Rome, the devastating social and economic effects of the plague, debasement of currency, and economic depression. The crisis ended with the ascension of Diocletian and his implementation of reforms in 284.
Antonia Gordiana was a prominent, wealthy and noble Roman woman who 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. The Augustan History names her as Maecia Faustina, however, modern historians dismiss this name as false. She was most probably born in Rome. Along with her elder brother they were raised and spent their childhoods in the house that Roman Republican General Pompey had built in Rome. Previous owners included Roman Triumvir Mark Antony and Roman Emperor Tiberius.
The name Caelius is an ancient Roman nomen and may refer to:
Lucius Valerius Claudius Acilius Priscillianus [Maximus] was a Roman senator.
The gens Caelia was a plebeian family at ancient Rome. The nomen Caelius is frequently confounded with Coelius and Caecilius, with some individuals referred to as Caelius in manuscripts, while appearing as Coelius or Coilius on coins. Although the Caelii asserted their great antiquity, none of them attained any of the higher offices of the Roman state until the praetorship of Publius Caelius in 74 BC, and the first of this gens who obtained the consulship was Gaius Caelius Rufus in AD 17. The emperor Balbinus was a descendant of the Caelii.
Marcus Pupienus Africanus Maximus was a Roman Senator.
Maximinus Thrax was a Roman emperor from 235 to 238. Born of Thracian origin – giving the nickname "Thrax" – he rose up through the military ranks, ultimately holding high command in the army of the Rhine under Emperor Severus Alexander. After Severus was murdered in 235, he was proclaimed emperor by the army, beginning the Crisis of the Third Century.
Manius Acilius Aviola was a Roman senator who served as Consul ordinarius in 239 as the colleague of Emperor Gordian III. He is considered a son of the Manius Acilius Aviola who is mentioned as being present as a child at the meetings of the Arval Brethren for the years 183 and 186; as well as the descendant of the homonymous consul of AD 122.
The siege of Aquileia was a siege battle that took place in 238 in the town of Aquileia during the Year of the Six Emperors, which resulted in the assassination of Maximinus Thrax.
The Gordian dynasty, sometimes known as the Gordianic dynasty, was short-lived, ruling the Roman Empire from 238 to 244 AD. The dynasty achieved the throne in 238 AD, after Gordian I and his son Gordian II rose up against Emperor Maximinus Thrax and were proclaimed co-emperors by the Roman Senate. Gordian II was killed by the governor of Numidia, Capillianus and Gordian I killed himself shortly after, only 22 days after he was declared emperor. In 238, Pupienus and Balbinus, who were not of the Gordian dynasty, were declared co-emperors but the Senate was forced to make Gordian III a third co-emperor in 238, due to the demands of the Roman people. Maximinus attempted to invade Italy but he was killed by his own soldiers when his army became frustrated. After this, the Praetorian Guard killed Pupienus and Balbinus, leaving Gordian III as the sole emperor. Gordian III ruled until AD 244 when he was either killed after his betrayal by Philip the Arab, or killed at the Battle of Misiche; with his death, the dynasty was ended and Philip the Arab became emperor.
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