Are they, and welcome to Emperors of Rome, a Roman history podcast from Latrobe University.

I'm your host, Matt Smith, and with me today is Associate Professor Kaelin Davenport,

a research fellow in Roman history at Macquarie University and Humboldt Research Fellow

at Gerthe University in Frankfurt, Germany.

This is Episode C-L-X-I-V, Gordy in the Third.

When the dust settled on a six-month civil war in 238 CE, only the 13-year-old Gordian

is left standing to take the purple.

Once again, Rome is left with a teenage emperor, he is Gaelin Davenport.

In January of 238, there is a crisis for Maximinus.

The people of Africa revolt against his harsh tax exactions, and they march to Carthage

where they acclaim the elderly pro-Consul Gordian, who was about 80 years of age as Emperor,

alongside his son and legate who becomes Gordian II.

Their reign doesn't last very long, they're soon defeated by the governor of New

Media, who has stayed loyal to Maximinus.

But the Senate in Rome has already thrown their lot in with the revolt of the Gordians.

They can't go back to supporting Maximinus.

So they elect a board of 20 senators to take the fight against Maximinus,

headed by two coal-gusty, two senior senators, Pupianus and Balbenus.

But popular demonstrations in Rome demand that a member of Gordian I family

be incorporated into the Imperial College, and we know this thanks to the account

of Herodian. They choose Gordian III's grandson, who is only 13,

who shares his name, Marcus Antonius Gordianus.

...