Balbinus

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Balbinus
31st Emperor of the Roman Empire
Bust of Balbinus
Reign	22 April – 29 July 238 (with Pupienus, and in opposition to Maximinus Thrax)
Full name	Decimus Caelius Calvinus Balbinus Pius (from birth to accession); Caesar Decimus Caelius Calvinus Balbinus Pius Augustus (as emperor)
Died	29 July 238 (aged 73)
Place of death	Rome
Predecessor	Gordian I and II
Successor	Gordian III

Year of the Six Emperors
Part of a series on Roman imperial dynasties
238 AD
Maximinus Thrax
Gordian I and Gordian II
Pupienus and Balbinus, nominally with Gordian III
Gordian III
v t e

Sestertius of Balbinus.

Balbinus (Latin: Decimus Caelius Calvinus Balbinus Pius Augustus;^[1]^[2] c. 165 – 29 July 238), was Roman Emperor with Pupienus for three months in 238, the Year of the Six Emperors.

Origins and career

Not much is known about Balbinus before his elevation to emperor. It has been conjectured that he descended from Publius Coelius Balbinus Vibullius Pius, the consul ordinarius of 136 or 137, and wife Aquilia. If this were true, he was also related to the family of Q. Pompeius Falco, which supplied many politicians of consular rank throughout the 3rd century, and to the 1st-century politician, engineer and author Julius Frontinus, as well as a descendant of a first cousin of Trajan.^{[citation needed]} He was born around 178.^[2] He was a patrician from birth, and was the son (either by birth or adoption) of ... Caelius Calvinus, who was legate of Cappadocia in 184. He was one of the Salii priests of Mars.^[3] According to Herodian he had governed provinces, but the list of seven provinces given in the Historia Augusta, as well as the statement that Balbinus had been both Proconsul of Asia and of Africa, are likely to be mere invention.^{[citation needed]} He had certainly been twice consul; his first consulate is not certainly known but is believed to have been about 203 or in July 211; he was consul for the second time in 213 as colleague of Caracalla, which suggests he enjoyed that emperor's favour.

Reign

According to Edward Gibbon (drawing upon the narratives of Herodian and the Historia Augusta):

Balbinus was an admired orator, a poet of distinguished fame, and a wise magistrate, who had exercised with innocence and applause the civil jurisdiction in almost all the interior provinces of the empire. His birth was noble, his fortune affluent, his manners liberal and affable. In him, the love of pleasure was corrected by a sense of dignity, nor had the habits of ease deprived him of a capacity for business. (...) The two colleagues [Pupienus and Balbinus] had both been consul (Balbinus had twice enjoyed that honourable office), both had been named among the twenty lieutenants of the senate; and, since the one was sixty and the other seventy-four years old, they had both attained the full maturity of age and experience.^[4]

When the Gordians were proclaimed Emperors in Africa, the Senate appointed a committee of twenty men, including Balbinus, to co-ordinate operations against Maximinus Thrax.^{[citation needed]} On the news of the Gordians' defeat, the Senate voted Pupienus and Balbinus as co-emperors on 22 April 238,^[2] though they were soon forced to co-opt the child Gordian III as a colleague. Unlike the situation in 161, both emperors were elected as pontifices maximi, chief priests of the official cults. This would be unthinkable in Republican times. Balbinus was probably in his early seventies: his qualifications for rule are unknown, except presumably that he was a senior senator, rich and well-connected. While Pupienus marched to Ravenna, where he oversaw the campaign against Maximinus, Balbinus remained in Rome, but failed to keep public order. The sources suggest that after Pupienus's victorious return following Maximinus' death, Balbinus suspected Pupienus of wanting to supplant him, and they were soon living in different parts of the Imperial palace,^{[citation needed]} where they were later assassinated by disaffected elements of the Praetorian Guard, with Balbinus' death occurring on 29 July 238.^[2]

Sarcophagus

The 'sarcophagus of Balbinus' has earned this Emperor a niche in the history of Roman Imperial art. When presumably holding the title of Emperor, Balbinus had a marble sarcophagus made for himself and his wife (whose name is unknown). Discovered in fragments near the Via Appia and restored, this is the only example of a Roman Imperial sarcophagus of this type to have survived. On the lid are reclining figures of Balbinus and his wife, the figure of the Emperor also being a fine portrait of him. The sarcophagus is held in collection at the Museo di Pretastato (at the catacombs of Praetextatus) in the Park of the Caffarella near the Appian Way at Rome.

Although in accounts of their joint reign Balbinus is emphasized as the civilian as against Pupienus the military man, on the side of the sarcophagus he is portrayed in full military dress.

References

↑ In Classical Latin, Balbinus' name would be inscribed as DECIMVS CAELIVS BALBINVS PIVS AVGVSTVS.
↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 Adkins, Lesley; Adkins, Roy A. (1994). Handbook to Life in Ancient Rome. New York: Oxford University Press. p. 26.
↑ "Michael Grant, The Roman Emporers"
↑ The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, vol. I, p. 225, Edward Gibbon (The Online Library of Liberty). .

External links

Media related to Balbinus at Wikimedia Commons

Regnal titles
Preceded by Gordian I and Gordian II	Roman Emperor 238 Served alongside: Pupienus	Succeeded by Gordian III
Political offices
Preceded by Pompeianus , Gaius Julius Camilius Asper	Consul of the Roman Empire 213 with Caracalla	Succeeded by Lucius Valerius Messalla Apollinaris, Gaius Octavius Appius Suetrius Sabinus

v t e Roman emperors

Principate 27 BC – 235 AD	Augustus Tiberius Caligula Claudius Nero Galba Otho Vitellius Vespasian Titus Domitian Nerva Trajan Hadrian Antoninus Pius Marcus Aurelius with Lucius Verus Commodus Pertinax Didius Julianus Septimius Severus Caracalla Geta Macrinus with Diadumenian Elagabalus Alexander Severus

Crisis 235–284	Maximinus Thrax Gordian I and Gordian II Pupienus and Balbinus Gordian III Philip the Arab Decius with Herennius Etruscus Hostilian Trebonianus Gallus with Volusianus Aemilianus Valerian Gallienus with Saloninus Claudius Gothicus Quintillus Aurelian Tacitus Florianus Probus Carus Carinus Numerian

Dominate 284–395	Diocletian Maximian Constantius Chlorus Galerius Severus Maxentius Maximinus Daia Licinius with Valerius Valens and Martinianus Constantine the Great Constantine II Constans I Constantius II with Vetranio Julian Jovian Valentinian I Valens Gratian Valentinian II Theodosius I

Western Empire 395–480	Honorius with Constantine III Constantius III Joannes Valentinian III Petronius Maximus Avitus Majorian Libius Severus Anthemius Olybrius Glycerius Julius Nepos Romulus Augustulus

Eastern/ Byzantine Empire 395–1204	Arcadius Theodosius II Marcian Leo I the Thracian Leo II Zeno Basiliscus Anastasius I Justin I Justinian I Justin II Tiberius II Constantine Maurice Phocas Heraclius Constantine III Heraklonas Constans II Constantine IV Justinian II Leontios Tiberios III Philippikos Anastasios II Theodosios III Leo III the Isaurian Constantine V Artabasdos Leo IV the Khazar Constantine VI Irene Nikephoros I Staurakios Michael I Rangabe Leo V the Armenian Michael II the Amorian Theophilos Michael III Basil I the Macedonian Leo VI the Wise Alexander Constantine VII Porphyrogennetos Romanos I Lekapenos Romanos II Nikephoros II Phokas John I Tzimiskes Basil II Constantine VIII Zoe Romanos III Argyros Michael IV the Paphlagonian Michael V Kalaphates Constantine IX Monomachos Theodora Michael VI Bringas Isaac I Komnenos Constantine X Doukas Romanos IV Diogenes Michael VII Doukas Nikephoros III Botaneiates Alexios I Komnenos John II Komnenos Manuel I Komnenos Alexios II Komnenos Andronikos I Komnenos Isaac II Angelos Alexios III Angelos Alexios IV Angelos Alexios V Doukas

Empire of Nicaea 1204–1261	Constantine Laskaris Theodore I Laskaris John III Doukas Vatatzes Theodore II Laskaris John IV Laskaris

Eastern/ Byzantine Empire 1261–1453	Michael VIII Palaiologos Andronikos II Palaiologos Michael IX Palaiologos Andronikos III Palaiologos John V Palaiologos John VI Kantakouzenos Matthew Kantakouzenos Andronikos IV Palaiologos John VII Palaiologos Andronikos V Palaiologos Manuel II Palaiologos John VIII Palaiologos Constantine XI Palaiologos

Persondata
Name	Balbinus
Alternative names
Short description	Roman Emperor
Date of birth
Place of birth
Date of death	238
Place of death	Rome

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