Hello, and welcome to the history of Rome, Episode 109, The New Millennium.

In 243 AD, 18-year-old Gordian III lost the man who had helped make the first few years

of his reign a success.

With Thymacetheus in place, the Empire had enjoyed the fruits of a capable administrator,

without having to ingest the poison seeds that often accompanied those fruits when they

were provided by two powerful and underling.

Had Gordian's father-in-law and Praetorian prefect lived, there might have been conflict

down the road as Gordian came of age, but we need not trouble ourselves with that question,

because that's not how it went.

How it went was that things were going great for Gordian until Thymacetheus died, and

then everything went to hell.

There are a couple of different versions about what happened between 243 and 244 that

led to Philip the Arab becoming emperor, but the basic facts are these.

Thymacetheus died, Philip was appointed Praetorian prefect, then Gordian died, and Philip became

emperor.

Other than that, the record is contradictory, but the different stories used to explain

these basic facts break down into roughly three categories.

One, Philip was completely innocent in everything that happened, two, Philip started out innocent,

but wound up guilty, and three, that Philip was guilty right on down the line.

To take the last first, the story goes that Philip and his brother, Gaius, conspired to

kill Thymacetheus, that is, the mysterious illness that killed Gordian's father-in-law

was actually poison.

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