★ Rare, RPC Online Plate Coin (this coin is the pictorial reference coin at RPC Online) - impressive big 35mm diameter Provincial Bronze with heavy 26 Gramm weight - fantastic Grodianus III portrait - lovely detailed and interesting reverse presentation - well centered - full legends at booth sides - beautiful brown patina color toning ★
Marcus Antonius Gordianus III
Reign: Gordianus III
Mint: Antiochia, Pisidia
Date: 238/244 AD
Nominal: Provincial Sestertius
Material: AE Bronze
Diameter: 35mm
Weight: 26.30g
Reference: RPC VII.2 2714 (this coin!)
Reference: Krzyżanowska XIV/69
RPC Online: rpc.ashmus.ox.ac.uk/coins/7.2...
RPC Online Plate: rpc.ashmus.ox.ac.uk/coin/478746
Obverse: Laureate, draped and cuirassed bust of Gordian III, right, seen from rear
Inscription: IMP CAES M ANT GORDIANOVS AVG
Translation: Imperator Caesar Marcus Antonius Gordianus Augustus
Reverse: Gordian III riding on galloping horse right, with right hand spearing enemy left, raising arms
Inscription: VIRT AVG COL ANTIOCH S R
Translation: Virtus Augusti Colonia Antiochia Senatus Romanum
Translation: Courage of the emperor, City Antiochia, (in the name of the) Senat of Rome
Comment: Marcus Antonius Gordianus (born 20 January 225 AD; died 244 AD), also known as Gordian III, was Roman emperor from 238 to 244 AD. The names of his parents in the late antique Historia Augusta are fictitious. It is very likely that his mother Antonia Gordiana was a daughter of Gordian I and thus a sister of Gordian II. Probably in May 241 AD he married Furia Sabinia Tranquillina, daughter of his later praetorian prefect Gaius Furius Sabinus Aquila Timesitheus. Denarii with Diana Lucifera on the reverse were minted on the occasion of this marriage. The marriage remained childless. Gordian III probably died in February 244 AD. We have different versions in the sources about both the place and the exact circumstances of his death, so that it remains open whether he died in battle with the Persians or at the hands of his own soldiers. Possibly he was already on his way back outside Persian territory when he fell victim to a mutiny of the soldiers. It is often assumed that Philip Arabs, out of his own desire for power, at least worked to discredit Gordian III among the army, if not was directly responsible for his murder, but this is disputed. The Persian account, according to which Gordian fell during (or as a result of) the Battle of Mesiche, is considered by several scholars to be quite credible, especially since later Byzantine sources (such as John Zonaras), which could draw on older material, do not point to an assassination of the emperor either.