Timesitheus

Gaius Furius Sabinius Aquila Timesitheus († 243 ) was one of the most important advisors to the young Roman emperor Gordian III. , under which he last held the office of Praetorian Prefect .

Life

Gaius Timesitheus was a Roman knight and apparently began his career under Emperor Caracalla . Under Elagabal he served as prefect of the Cohors I Gallica in Hispania , in 218 and 222 he held the position of procurator in Roman Arabia , around 220 he held a civil administrative post in the Rhine provinces. Other knightly offices followed, with Timesitheus apparently proving to be a flexible and universally deployable functionary. However , he does not seem to have tried to be accepted into the Senate .

In 232 he was responsible for the financial coordination of the moderately successful war of Emperor Severus Alexander against the Sassanids , after which he proved himself in various posts in Gaul in the following years - under Maximinus Thrax he acquired the dubious reputation of being particularly successful in increasing state revenues have - and was finally appointed Praetorian Prefect in 241. He apparently managed very quickly to rise to the decisive figure at the court and the young, inexperienced Gordian III. to bind to yourself. In spring 241, the emperor married Timesitheus' daughter Furia Sabinia Tranquillina , which made him de facto co-regent.

Despite his abundance of power, the Praetorian prefect Timesitheus evidently proved to be a loyal helper to the emperor, whose regime he decisively supported. It is not evident that Timesitheus himself aspired to the throne; it was enough for him to be the ruler's father-in-law. In 243 he went together with Gordian against the Sassanids under Shapur I , to whom the Roman troops were able to inflict a serious defeat in a first battle. The sudden death of Timesitheus shortly after this victory, which was most likely still won under his command, had far-reaching consequences; His successor as Praetorian prefect was Marcus Iulius Philippus, who came from Arabia and was supposed to take on the imperial purple as Philip Arab after a defeat by the Romans in the battle of Mesiche 244 and the mysterious death of Gordian .

literature

• Tommaso Gnoli: C. Furius Sabinius Aquila Timesitheus. In: Mediterraneo Antico. Volume 3, 2000, pp. 261-308.
• Katrin Herrmann: Gordian III. Emperor of a time of upheaval. Kartoffeldruck-Verlag, Speyer 2013, ISBN 978-3-939526-20-9 .