★ Mint-State condition, virtually as struck - rare in this grade - sharply defined with a lovely juvenile portrait and mint luster - perfectly centered - full legends at booth sides - full diameter and full heavy 5 Gramm weight ★
Marcus Antonius Gordianus III
Reign: Gordianus III
Mint: Rome, 2nd issue
Date: 239 AD
Nominal: Aureus
Material: Gold
Diameter: 20mm
Weight: 5.00g
Reference: Cohen 188
Reference: Calicó 3211
Reference: RIC IV Gordian III 21
OCRE Online: numismatics.org/ocre/id/ric.4....
Obverse: Bust of Gordian III, laureate, draped, cuirassed, right
Inscription: IMP CAES M ANT GORDIANVS AVG
Translation: Imperator Caesar Marcus Antonius Gordianus
Reverse: Jupiter, nude except for cloak on shoulders, standing front, head left, holding vertical sceptre in left hand and thunderbolt in right hand over Gordian III, togate, standing left and raising right hand
Inscription: P M TR P II COS P P
Translation: Pontifex Maximus, Tribunicia Potestate Secunda, Consul, Pater Patriae
Translation: High priest, holder of tribunician power for the second time, consul, father of the nation
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.