Ars Longa Vita Brevis

Tiddis was an ancient Berber site near Cirta, the capital of Numidia, in what is now eastern Algeria.  In Roman times, it became a garrison town, part of the defense perimeter of Cirta.  I was struck visiting it by its dramatic site over a gorge, and especially by the Roman monuments that still spoke in mute testimony to the desolate landscape.

This particular monument, put up by the city fathers in “perpetual devotion” to Emperor Gordian III, indicates Gordian III had renewed his annual tribunician power, first received in late July 238 AD, three times.  It also shows he was still in his first consulship, which lasted until 241 AD, so together with the TR P information this indicates a date of mid-240 to mid-241 AD.

Tiddis and Cirta were west of Carthage, in what is now Tunisia, then capital of the Roman Province of Africa.  The slab was put up just three years after Gordian had disbanded the region's major military force, the Third Augustan Legion, based south of Tiddis at Lambaesis. 

Gordian I, elderly governor of the Roman Province of Africa, and his son Gordian II, had been named co-emperors by the Senate in 238 during an insurrection against the unpopular Emperor Maximinus. Campaigning in Germany, Maximinus was declared by the Senate an enemy of the state. However, Numidia Governor Capellianus, an ally of Maximinus, with the support of the Legio III Augusta, marched on the Gordians in Carthage. On May 12, 238 Gordian II was killed and Gordian I committed suicide, after only 22 days as co-emperors. Maximinus, hearing of their appointments but not their deaths, marched on Italy. He was killed by his Praetorian Guard at Aquileia in northern Italy. After brief rule by co-emperors Balbinus and Pupienus, who were also killed by their Praetorian Guards, the adolescent Marcus Antonius Gordianus, nephew of Gordian II and grandson of Gordian I, was proclaimed Emperor Gordian III by the praetorians. The Third Augusta Legion was then disbanded by Gordian III for its role in opposing Gordian I and II.

So Tiddis was a military garrison town. The Third Augustan Legion had just been disestablished and its name chiseled off all inscriptions at Lambaesis, the legionary headquarters.  Damnatio memoriae.  It was thus a very politic move for the town fathers in Tiddis to put up a monument underlining their loyalty to Gordian III.