Gold Aureus of Gordian III, 4.34 g.
Title
Gold Aureus of Gordian III, 4.34 g.
Creator
Gordian III
Date
240 CE
Description
Obverse: Laureate, draped, and cuirassed bust of Gordianus facing right; IMP(ERATOR) CAES(AR) GORDIANVS PIVS AVG(VSTVS): Imperator Caesar Gordianus, pious Augustus.
Reverse: Liberalitas standing facing left, with tessera in right and cornucopia in left; LIBERALITAS AVG(VSTI) II: the second liberality of the Augustus.
Style/Period: Roman Empire
The year 238 CE was one of the most chaotic in Roman history, with five emperors coming to violent ends. The sixth Augustus of that year, Marcus Antonius Gordianus, came to the throne at the age of thirteen, after the deaths of his grandfather and uncle, Gordian I and II, and of the co-emperors who replaced them, Balbinus and Pupienus. Probably first led by his mother, then by the able praetorian prefect, Timesitheus, whose daughter he married in 241 CE, Gordian surprisingly remained in power for six years. His reign was marked by war on the northern frontier and in Africa and in the East by a Persian invasion. Gordian and Timesitheus went to meet the threat in the East and pushed on to Mesopotamia, where Timesitheus died suddenly. He was succeeded by his second in command, Philip, who soon murdered Gordian. |
Gordian's coin portraits assume the short-haired military type typical of this period of soldier-emperors, but it does nothing to disguise the youthfulness of his beardless, unlined face. On the reverse, Liberalitas with her tessera and cornucopia refers to the largesse of Gordian's second liberality (see 91.171), the occasion for which is unknown.
-- Carol L. Lawton
Bibliography: H. Mattingly, E.A. Sydenham, and C.H.V. Sutherland, The Roman Imperial Coinage IV.3: Gordian III to Uranus Antoninus (London 1949) 58.
Gordian's coin portraits assume the short-haired military type typical of this period of soldier-emperors, but it does nothing to disguise the youthfulness of his beardless, unlined face. On the reverse, Liberalitas with her tessera and cornucopia refers to the largesse of Gordian's second liberality (see 91.171), the occasion for which is unknown.
-- Carol L. Lawton
Bibliography: H. Mattingly, E.A. Sydenham, and C.H.V. Sutherland, The Roman Imperial Coinage IV.3: Gordian III to Uranus Antoninus (London 1949) 58.
Source
Former collection of Ottilia Buerger. Purchased from Stack's, 1960. Ex Milton Holmes collection.
Identifier
91.219
Rights
Wriston Art Center Galleries, Lawrence University, Appleton, WI,wriston-gallery@lawrence.edu,920-832-6890
Subject
Roman, Empire, Gordian, Liberalitas, tessera, cornucopia
Files
Citation
Gordian III, “Gold Aureus of Gordian III, 4.34 g.,” Lawrence University Classics Department & Ottilia Buerger Coin Collections, accessed November 5, 2026, https://thor.lawrence.edu/omeka/buerger/items/show/305.