GORDIAN I

born c. 157 died April 238 Latin in full Marcus Antonius Gordianus Sempronianus Romanus Africanus Roman emperor for three weeks in March-April 238. Gordian was an elderly senator with a taste for literature. The Greek writer Flavius Philostratus dedicated his Lives of the Sophists to him. Early in 238, when Gordian was proconsul in Africa, a group of wealthy young landowners resisted and killed the tax collectors who had been sent to Africa by the emperor Maximinus (reigned 235-238). The insurgents proclaimed Gordian emperor, and the Senate recognized him. Gordian killed himself upon learning of the battlefield death of his son and coruler, Gordian II.