I was doing a bit of research on Gordian lll and ran across an article that showed a carving with Gordian lll under the horse of the victor. Here is the video. Any fact to this? https://duckduckgo.com/?q=gordian+l...i=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3lbupaPhIAE
Google The eventual fate of Gordian after the battle is unclear. Sasanian sources claim that a battle occurred (Battle of Misiche) near modern Fallujah (Iraq) and resulted in a major Roman defeat and the death of Gordian III.[26] One view holds that Gordian died at Zaitha, murdered by his frustrated army, while the role of Philip is unknown.[27] Scholarly analyses suggest the Sasanian version, "while defective[,] is superior" to the Roman one.[28]
Here is another quote to the same effect as Victor's comment, from the excellent CoinRelief blog (last active 2021) of the British P.A.S. website (Portable Antiquities Scheme): Coin Relief 45 – Philip I and II, and Octacilia Severa (11 May 2021, Lauren Speed) "Classical authors are generally hostile to Philip, which could be quite simply because he was an Arab. He is accused of undermining and finally assassinating Gordian, but the story does not ring entirely true. In 1938, an inscription was found at Naqsh-e Rustam, near Persepolis, which claimed that Shapur defeated the Romans at the Battle of Misikhe, 50km west of Baghdad. The relief above the inscription appears to show Gordian being trampled under the hooves of Shapur’s horse. Finally, we read that Philip paid the Sasanians 500,000 denarii. This defeat is air-brushed from Roman sources who blame the downfall and death of Gordian on Philip’s treachery; it seems the truth could be otherwise and it is possible that Philip might have been maligned. Whatever the occurred, Philip made a treaty with Shapur and retreated back into Roman territory." COIN TAX: Alexandrian Tetradrachm struck in Gordian's final year (RY 7 = 243/4 CE). Egypt, Alexandria. Billon Tetradrachm (23mm, 12.35g, 12h), dated RY 7 (243/4 CE). Rev: Helios radiate. L-Z. Dattari 4731 = RPC (VII, 2) 3874.8 (this coin) Helios/Sol seems to have been invoked, at times, as holding some sway over what happened in Eastern campaigns. But apparently the coins in his honor were not enough to save Gordian from the Eastern enemies. As the sun, rising in the East, Aurelian, for instance, apparently viewed Sol as sanctioning his planned campaign in Parthia. (Maybe he thought Valerian's error was invoking Victory.) Aurelian should have learned from Gordian III. He was murdered en route Eastward -- unlike Gordian, Aurelian never even got close! Seems Sol/Helios was never on the side of the Romans at all.
Here is an interesting and extremely rare bronze as of a victorious Gordian III. He did have some notable successes against the Sassanids.
According to Ammian, the emperor Julian in 363 marched with his army on the right bank of the Euphrates, leaving Circesium (Busayra), crossing the Euphrates (Ammian says the Khabur, a small river, but it was obviously the Euphrates), and walking in the direction of Dura Europos (then a field of ruins, totally destroyed in 256). Then : "Setting out from there we came to a place called Zaitha, which means "Olive tree." Here we saw, conspicuous from afar, the tomb of the Emperor Gordianus, of whose deeds from early childhood, his successful campaigns, and his treacherous murder we have spoken at the appropriate time." For Ammian, a former military of Syrian origin, Gordian had been treacherously murdered, he had no doubt about it. This could always be a mere rumor or prejudice, but Gordian was buried in Zaitha, this is a fact, in a large monument "conspicuous from afar". "When Julian had there, in accordance with his native piety, made offerings to the deified emperor, and was on his way to Dura (a deserted town), he saw a troop of soldiers in the distance and halted (...)". After this ceremony, Julian made a speech to his troops. For him, no doubt, Gordian had been murdered in the very place he was buried : "(...) the younger Gordianus, whose monument we just looked upon with reverence, would have come back with equal glory, after vanquishing the Persian king and putting him to flight at Resaina, had he not been struck down by an impious wound inflicted by the faction of Philippus, the praetorian prefect, and a few wicked accomplices, in the very place where he now lies buried. But his shade did not long wander unavenged, for as if their deeds were weighed in the scales of Justice, all who had conspired against him perished by agonising deaths." After this speech the army resumed its walk to Dura for two more days. The Zaitha monument has not been discovered. Pierre Leriche, who has been excavating Dura Europos before the Syrian civil war, said he thought he had probably found it, but did not give further details. The distance between Busayra and Dura is 53 km in a straight line. If we follow Ammian, Zaitha must have been on the right bank, nearer from Circesium (Busayra) than from Dura. This huge monument could be the core of the later islamic fortress of Rahba, near Mayadin, 16 km due south from Busayra, overlooking the Euphrates valley. Medieval Arabs considered it marked the boundary between al-'Iraq and ash-Sham, and in Ammian's account we see that Julian considered he was in enemy territory south of Zaitha... So, what about Gordian? Shapour does not say he killed Gordian, he just says that the Romans were defeated in Misikhe and that Gordian was killed. That does not rule out the possibility of Gordian being murdered by his own men. On his investiture and triumphal reliefs he sometimes represents his horse trampling Gordian's dead body, but not always, and particularly not on the post-260 famous Naqsh-i Rustam relief, just near his long inscription... Such a representation is purely conventional : in Taq-e Bostan there is an investiture relief of Shapur II on which he is trampling the emperor Julian's dead body. But we know for sure what happened to Julian: he was fatally wounded at the battle of Samarra but his body was never desecrated by the enemy. He was evacuated to his camp, and died from his wounds after delivering a last long philosophical speech. There have been three versions of Gordian's death : killed by the Persians, assassinated by Philip, or falling from his horse and breaking his thigh. One thing may be considered relatively sure : Gordian was buried at Zaitha, south of Circesium, on the right bank of the Euphrates. The battle of Misikhe is ignored by all Roman sources, and is mentioned by Shapur's trilingual inscription only. We can rule out any lies from Shapur : telling the truth is the unquestionable duty of all Persian nobleman and the inscription was carved on a sacred place, where all Persian noblemen who had fought this war could read it. But this battle was not decisive : Shapur did negotiate with the new emperor Philip, which means that Philip had still enough forces to deter the Persians to carry on. And if Philip paid an important ransom for the Roman prisoners, he did not handle back the cities retaken from Shapur before Misikhe. Shapur made no territorial gains in this war... It is probable that Gordian had recklessly advanced to Misikhe with only a part of his army, that the Persians attacked and captured many Romans, and Gordian was either mortally wounded (falling from his horse, as said by Malalas and Zonaras), or assassinated during his retreat by mutinous soldiers who held him responsible of the food shortage (and the lost battle)? It is also possible that some soldiers hated him now because he was abandoning their comrades taken by the enemy : the first thing that Philip made as soon as he was emperor was to free the prisoners... But Gordian did not die in Misikhe, the Persian king did not ritually desecrate his dead body, he died in Zaitha near Circesium (Busayra) and was buried by his successor Philip in a conspicuous monument.
Lots of good comments so far on this thread. I love a good historical mystery. While it is not hard to see why the Romans wouldn’t want to broadcast if their emperor was mortally wounded during a humiliating defeat it also wouldn’t surprise me to learn that Philip had played a role in Gordian’s downfall in some way. Here are two of my favorites of the emperors in question.
The archaeologist in charge of the Dura Europos excavations before 2011 thought he had localized it, but wouldn't say where. Nobody else has located this monumental tomb, or even seriously proposed a location. The problem is : left bank or right bank of the Euphrates? The itinerary of Julian in 363, who left Circesium, crossed the Khabur, stopped at Zaitha to make sacrifices to the Divus Gordianus, and continued to Dura Europos, is ambiguous: if he crossed the Khabur he was on the left bank, but Doura is on the right bank... In my opinion, Gordian's monument could lie under the medieval castle of ar-Rahba, west of Mayadin in eastern Syria, on the right bank of the Euphrates, 16 km south of Circesium (today al-Busayrah). It was most probably some kind of huge structure "conspicuous from afar" (Ammian) for those coming from Circesium. The place was on the main road and was called Zaitha ("olive-grove" in Aramaean) in the 4th c. It was a well-known monument and some early Byzantine authors even mention the distance (from Circesium?) : 60 stadia (11 km), according to Zosimus. Al-Rahba castle is a medieval castle of the 13th c. but there was something there before, at least under the early Abbasids in the 9th c., why not earlier? Its location, overlooking the Euphrates valley and even the plateau, makes it a monument "conspicuous from afar" for those coming from al-Busayrah... There are not so many sites in the area that fit this description so well... Medieval castle of al-Rahba (Syria) Plan of the medieval town of al-Rahba, the fortress being 50 m above the valley (north) and 10 m above the plateau (south) satellite view of the medieval fortress Was this castle built over the ruins of Gordian's monumental tomb?
