Marcus Antonius Africanus, was a member of one of the noblest and wealthiest families of Rome, and gained unbounded popularity by the magnificence, games, and shows, with which he amused the people during his quaestorship. He was proconsul of Africa in A.D. 237, when that province rebelled against Maximin; and so popular had been his rule, that he was then saluted emperor. After much reluctance, he accepted the proffered dignity, though upwards of eighty years old, insisting only that his son should be conjoined with him in office. The two had barely been installed as emperors at Carthage, when Capelianus, a general of Maximin, hastily collecting troops, marched against them, defeating and slaying the younger in battle. His father, hearing the news of his death, strangled himself. They had scarcely enjoyed their imperial honours two months. Both the Gordians were fond of literature, and were themselves the authors of several books. They were both men of considerable accomplishments; but rather intellectual voluptuaries than able statesmen or powerful rulers.

M. Antonius, surnamed Pius, was grandson of the elder Gordian, and raised to the empire at thirteen years of age; and when Maximus and Balbinus fell in an insurrection of the soldiers, he was left sole emperor. Having married Fabia Sabina Tranquillina, the daughter of his master of rhetoric, he appointed his father-in-law, Misitheus, prefect of the praetorian guards, and through his assistance emancipated himself from the hands of his mother's eunuchs. Misitheus proved himself an able minister, and discharged the military duties of his office with vigour and ability. He induced the young emperor to proceed against the Persians, who had invaded Mesopotamia; and during the whole of the expedition Misitheus watched over the safety and discipline of the army. He was suddenly cut off, however, and the suspicion was general that he had been poisoned by Philip, his successor in the prefecture. A short time afterwards a sedition broke out among the soldiers, which was fomented by this same Philip, and Gordian was killed, A.D. 244, near the conflux of the Euphrates with the little river Aboras. (See L'Histoire des quatre Gordiens, par Abbé Dubois; also Caspar, Historia trium Gordianorum, Deventer, 1697.)