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Gordian III (Full Name: Marcus Antonius Gordianus Pius Augustus), was Roman Emperor from 238 to 244. At the age of 13, he became the youngest sole legal Roman emperor throughout the existence of the united Roman Empire. Gordian was the son of Antonia Gordiana and an unnamed Roman Senator who died before 238. Antonia Gordiana was the daughter of Emperor Gordian I and younger sister of Emperor Gordian II. Very little is known on his early life before his acclamation. Gordian had assumed the name of his maternal grandfather in 238.
Furia Sabinia Tranquillina or Sabinia Tranquillina (ca. 225 – aft. 244) was the Empress of Rome and wife of Emperor Gordian III. She was the young daughter of the Praetorian Prefect Timesitheus by an unknown wife.
In 241 her father was appointed the head of the Praetorian Guard by the Roman Emperor Gordian III. In May that year, Tranquillina had married Gordian. She became a Roman Empress and received the honorific title of Augusta. Her marriage to Gordian was an admission by the young emperor of both political indispensability of Timesitheus and Tranquillina’s suitability as an empress.
In 243, Tranquillina's father suddenly died and was replaced with Philip the Arab, as head of the Praetorian Guard. When Gordian was killed in February 244, Philip became the new emperor. Tranquillina survived her husband. She had no sons with him.