Roger Bland’s recent book, The Coinage of Gordian III from Antioch and Caesarea (2023), a revision of his 1991 PhD, presents a catalogue and die study of the coins produced for him in those two cities.
This coin, RIC 174 (corrected), Bland 48 (struck from obverse die 77, reverse die 442) from the first series of Antioch radiates is part of a distinctive group of reverse types that suggest an imperial visit by the young Gordian to Antioch in AD 239.
Coin reverses with the emperor on horseback, accompanied by an Adventus legend, have been used from the first century to proclaim an imperial arrival. No such legend on this Antioch coin, just a series of imperial titles, including TRP II and COS, however, the iconography is very suggestive of a visit by Gordian, the titles pointing to an issue date of AD 239.
Other associated radiates from Antioch pair the same dated reverse legend with an image of the emperor stood in an attitude of greeting in a slow quadriga and also seated in a curule chair. There is an overt imperial presence sugested in the devices used.
Although there are no extant ancient written histories that support the idea of Gordian’s visit to Antioch there is some additional evidence. After all, there is always the danger of isolated over-interpretation of coin reverse types (John Drinkwater, in The Gallic Empire, expresses this concern over numismatic interpretations).
The first of these is a Rescript or public government document:
Imp. GORDIANVS A. Rationalibus
Manifestum est nuptiis contra mandata contractis, dotem, quae data illo tempore, cum traducta est, fuerat, iuxta sententiam Divi Severi fieri caducam, nec si consensu postea coepisse videatur matrimonium, in praeteritum commisso vitio potuit mederi.
Dat. Kal. April, Antiochiae, Gordiano A. Et Aviola coss.
The rescript about dowries, is signed from Antioch on 1 April 239 (‘handed down on 1 April at Antioch, in the consulships of Gordian and Aviola’).
The second piece of supporting evidence is an inscription from Rome. The dating of it notes he was in Rome on 7 January 239 thus fixing a date after which he must have set off.
Furthermore it has been noted that Gordian was not present at the meeting of the Fratres Arvales on 11 May 240, which he normally attended, sending them a letter instead. The Fratres Arvales, or Brothers of the Fields, were a group of priests who offered sacrifices to the gods to guarantee good harvests. A long series of the acta or minutes of their proceedings, drawn up by themselves, and inscribed on stone have been discovered. Excavations in the grove of the Dea Dia have found 96 of these records dating from AD 14 to 241 AD.
Gordian’s return to Rome is also recorded in the coin types, for example on this dated equestrian denarius from Rome. Assuming that Gordian’s first tribunician was on his accession in mid 238, and renewed on December 10th each year his third tribunician would be 10 December 239 – 9 December 240. In combination with the absence of Gordian at the meeting of the Fratres Arvales Gordian’s return to Rome came sometime after the second half of May and before early December 240.
In our world we are used to international travel taking a fraction of a day. We forget that travel across the Roman world was much slower and that the emperor could be away from the capital for several months.
