Marcus Julius Philippus (Latin: Marcus Julius Philippus Augustus[a] c. 204 – September 249 AD), also known commonly by his nickname Philip the Arab (Latin: Philippus Arabus, also known as Philip or Philip I), was Roman Emperor from February 244 to September 249. He was born in Arabia Petraea, the Roman province of Arabia, in a city situated in modern-day Syria. He went on to become a major figure in the Roman Empire. After the death of Gordian III in February 244, Philip, who had been Praetorian prefect, achieved power. He quickly negotiated peace with the Persian Sassanid Empire. During his reign, the city of Rome celebrated its millennium.
Among early Christian writers, Philip had the reputation of being sympathetic to the Christian faith. Probably for this reason, it was even claimed by some that he had converted to Christianity, which would have made him the first Christian emperor. He supposedly tried to celebrate Easter with Christians in Antioch, but the bishop Saint Babylas made him stand with the penitents.[1] Philip and his wife received letters from Origen.[2]
Little is known about Philip's early life and political career. He was born in what is today Shahba, Syria, about 90 kilometres (56 mi) southeast of Damascus, in the Trachonitis district.[3] At the time this was in the Roman province of Arabia,[4] and Glen Bowersock believes that Philip was indeed of Arab origin.[5] He was the son of a local citizen, Julius Marinus, possibly of some importance.[6] Allegations from later Roman sources (Historia Augusta and Epitome de Caesaribus) that Philip had a very humble origin or even that his father was a leader of brigands are not accepted by modern historians.[7]
While the name of Philip's mother is unknown, he did have a brother, Gaius Julius Priscus, an equestrian and a member of the Praetorian Guard under Gordian III (238–244).[8] In 234, Philip married Marcia Otacilia Severa, daughter of a Roman Governor. They had three children, a son named Marcus Julius Philippus Severus (Philippus II), born in 238,[6] a daughter called Julia Severa or Severina who is known from numismatic evidence but is never mentioned by the ancient Roman sources and a son named Quintus Philippus Severus, born in 247.[citation needed]
Coin of Marcia Otacilia Severa, wife of Philip. The Greek legend states she received the title of Augusta. ΜΑΡ. ΩΤΑΚΙΛ. CEOΥHPAN CEB. / ZEYΓMATEΩN. (Greek iinscription for MAR. OTACIL. CEVERAN AVG. / citizens of ZEVGMA).
Philip's rise to prominence began through the intervention of his brother Priscus, who was an important official under the emperor Gordian III.[6] His big break came in 243, during Gordian III's campaign against Shapur I of Persia, when the Praetorian prefectTimesitheus died under unclear circumstances.[12] At the suggestion of his brother Priscus, Philip became the new Praetorian prefect, with the intention that the two brothers would control the young Emperor and rule the Roman world as unofficial regents.[6] Following a military defeat, Gordian III died in February 244 under circumstances that are still debated. While some claim that Philip conspired in his murder, other accounts (including one coming from the Persian point of view) state that Gordian died in battle.[13] Whatever the case, Philip assumed the purple robe following Gordian's death. According to Edward Gibbon:
His rise from so obscure a station to the first dignities of the empire seems to prove that he was a bold and able leader. But his boldness prompted him to aspire to the throne, and his abilities were employed to supplant, not to serve, his indulgent master.[14]
Philip was not willing to repeat the mistakes of previous claimants, and was aware that he had to return to Rome in order to secure his position with the senate.[3] However, his first priority was to conclude a peace treaty with Shapur I of Persia, and withdraw the army from a potentially disastrous situation.[15] Although Philip was accused of abandoning territory, the actual terms of the peace were not as humiliating as they could have been.[16] Philip apparently retained Timesitheus’ reconquest of Osroene and Mesopotamia, but he had to agree that Armenia lay within Persia’s sphere of influence.[17] He also had to pay an enormous indemnity to the Persians of 500,000 gold denarii.[18] Philip immediately issued coins proclaiming that he had made peace with the Persians (pax fundata cum Persis).[16]
Leading his army back up the Euphrates, south of Circesium Philip erected a cenotaph in honor of Gordian III, but his ashes were sent ahead to Rome, where he arranged for Gordian III’s deification.[19] Whilst in Antioch, he left his brother Priscus as extraordinary ruler of the Eastern provinces, with the title of rector Orientis.[20] Moving westward, he gave his brother-in-law Severianus control of the provinces of Moesia and Macedonia.[21] He eventually arrived in Rome in the late summer of 244, where he was confirmed Augustus.[3] Before the end of the year, he nominated his young son Caesar and heir, his wife, Otacilia Severa, was named Augusta, and he also deified his father Marinus, even though the latter had never been emperor.[16] While in Rome, Philip also claimed an official victory over the Persians with the titles of Parthicus Adiabenicus, Persicus Maximus and Parthicus Maximus.[citation needed]
In an attempt to shore up his regime, Philip put a great deal of effort in maintaining good relations with the Senate, and from the beginning of his reign, he reaffirmed the old Roman virtues and traditions.[16] He quickly ordered an enormous building program in his home town, renaming it Philippopolis, and raising it to civic status, while he populated it with statues of himself and his family.[22] This creation of a new city, piled on top of the massive tribute owed to the Persians, as well as the necessary donative to the army to secure its acceptance of his accession, meant Philip was desperately short of money.[22] To pay for it, he ruthlessly increased levels of taxation, while at the same time he ceased paying subsidies to the tribes north of the Danube that were vital for keeping the peace on the frontiers.[23] Both decisions would have significant impacts upon the empire and his reign.[24]
In 245, Philip was forced to leave Rome as the stability established by Timesitheus was undone by a combination of his death, Gordian’s defeat in the east and Philip’s decision to cease paying the subsidies.[25] The Carpi moved through Dacia, crossed the Danube and emerged in Moesia where they threatened the Balkans.[26] Establishing his headquarters in Philippopolis in Thrace, he pushed the Carpi across the Danube and chased them back into Dacia, so that by the summer of 246, he claimed victory against them, along with the title "Carpicus Maximus".[27] In the meantime, the Arsacids of Armenia refused to acknowledge the authority of the Persian king Shapur I, and war with Persia flared up again by 245.[24]
Nevertheless, Philip was back in Rome by August 247, where he poured more money into the most momentous event of his reign – the Ludi Saeculares, which coincided with the one thousandth anniversary of the foundation of Rome.[28] So in April 248 AD (April 1000 A.U.C.), Philip had the honor of leading the celebrations of the one thousandth birthday of Rome, which according to tradition was founded on April 21, 753 BC by Romulus. Commemorative coins, such as the one illustrated here, were issued in large numbers and, according to contemporary accounts, the festivities were magnificent and included spectacular games, ludi saeculares, and theatrical presentations throughout the city.[29] In the Colosseum, in what had been originally prepared for Gordian III’s planned Roman triumph over the Persians,[30] more than 1,000 gladiators were killed along with hundreds of exotic animals including hippos, leopards, lions, giraffes, and one rhinoceros.[31] The events were also celebrated in literature, with several publications, including Asinius Quadratus's History of a Thousand Years, specially prepared for the anniversary.[6] At the same time, Philip elevated his son to the rank of co-Augustus.[6]
Despite the festive atmosphere, there were continued problems in the provinces. In late 248, the legions of Pannonia and Moesia, dissatisfied with the result of the war against the Carpi, rebelled and proclaimed Tiberius Claudius Pacatianus emperor.[32] The confusion that this entailed tempted the Quadi and other Germanic tribes to cross the frontier and raid Pannonia.[28] At the same time, the Goths invaded Moesia and Thrace across the Danube frontier, and laid siege to Marcianopolis,[33] as the Carpi, encouraged by the Gothic incursions, renewed their assaults in Dacia and Moesia.[28] Meanwhile, in the East, Marcus Jotapianus led another uprising in response to the oppressive rule of Priscus and the excessive taxation of the Eastern provinces.[34] Two other usurpers, Marcus Silbannacus and Sponsianus, are reported to have started rebellions without much success.[6]
Overwhelmed by the number of invasions and usurpers, Philip offered to resign, but the Senate decided to throw its support behind the emperor, with a certain Gaius Messius Quintus Decius most vocal of all the senators.[35] Philip was so impressed by his support that he dispatched Decius to the region with a special command encompassing all of the Pannonian and Moesian provinces. This had a dual purpose of both quelling the rebellion of Pacatianus as well as dealing with the barbarian incursions.[36]
Although Decius managed to quell the revolt, discontent in the legions was growing.[24] Decius was proclaimed emperor by the Danubian armies in the spring of 249 and immediately marched on Rome.[37] Yet even before he had left the region, the situation for Philip had turned even more sour. Financial difficulties had forced him to debase the Antoninianus, as rioting began to occur in Egypt, causing disruptions to Rome’s wheat supply and further eroding Philip’s support in the capital.[38]
Although Decius tried to come to terms with Philip,[35] Philip's army met the usurper near modern Verona that summer. Decius easily won the battle and Philip was killed sometime in September 249,[39] either in the fighting or assassinated by his own soldiers who were eager to please the new ruler.[6] Philip's eleven-year-old son and heir may have been killed with his father and Priscus disappeared without a trace.[40]
Some later traditions, first mentioned in the historian Eusebius in his Ecclesiastical History, held that Philip was the first Christian Roman Emperor. According to Eusebius (Ecc. Hist. VI.34), Philip was a Christian, but was not allowed to enter Easter vigil services until he confessed his sins and ordered to sit among the penitents, which he did willingly. Later versions located this event in Antioch.[41]
However, historians generally identify the later Emperor Constantine, baptized on his deathbed, as the first Christian emperor, and generally describe Philip's adherence to Christianity as dubious, because non-Christian writers do not mention the fact, and because throughout his reign, Philip to all appearances (coinage, etc.) continued to follow the state religion.[42] Critics ascribe Eusebius' claim as probably due to the tolerance Philip showed towards Christians.
^Bowersock, Glen W., Roman Arabia, Harvard University Press, 1994, pg. 122
^Or, as Romans were also calling these people, "Syrian" or "Saracen". Bowersock, Glen W., Roman Arabia, Harvard University Press, 1994, pgs. 123, 124 footnote 4, 125
^Overlaet, Bruno (2017). "ŠĀPUR I: ROCK RELIEFS". Encyclopaedia Iranica. The two emperors who are named are shown in the way they are described: Philip the Arab is kneeling, asking for peace, and Valerian is physically taken prisoner by Šāpur. Consequently, the relief must be made after 260 CE.
^Kia, Mehrdad (2016). The Persian Empire: A Historical Encyclopedia [2 volumes]: A Historical Encyclopedia. ABC-CLIO. p. 274. ISBN978-1610693912. (...) while another figure, probably Philip the Arab, kneels, and the Sasanian king holds the ill-fated Emperor Valerian by his wrist.
^Corcoran, Simon (2006). "Before Constantine". In Lenski, Noel (ed.). The Cambridge Companion to the Age of Constantine. Cambridge University Press. p. 35. ISBN978-0521521574. He recorded these deeds for posterity in both words and images at Naqsh-i Rustam and on the Ka'aba-i Zardušt near the ancient Achaemenid capital of Persepolis, preserving for us a vivid image of two Roman emperors, one kneeling (probably Philip the Arab, also defeated by Shapur) and the second (Valerian), uncrowned and held captive at the wrist by a gloriously mounted Persian king.
The Battle of Abritus, also known as the Battle of Forum Terebronii, occurred near Abritus in the Roman province of Moesia Inferior in the summer of 251 between the Roman Empire and a federation of Gothic and Scythian tribesmen under the Goth king Cniva. The Roman army of three legions was soundly defeated, and Roman emperors Decius and his son Herennius Etruscus were both killed in battle. They became the first Roman emperors to be killed by a foreign enemy. It was one of the worst defeats suffered by the Roman Empire against Germanics, rated by the Roman historian Ammianus Marcellinus as on par with the Battle of the Teutoburg Forest in AD 9, the Marcomannic invasion of Roman Italy in 170, and the Battle of Adrianople in 378.
244
Year 244 (CCXLIV) was a leap year starting on Monday of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Armenius and Aemilianus. The denomination 244 for this year has been used since the early medieval period, when the Anno Domini calendar era became the prevalent method in Europe for naming years.
Decius
Decius, also known as Trajan Decius, was Roman Emperor from 249 to 251.
Gordian III
Gordian III was Roman Emperor from 238 AD to 244 AD. 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 of his early life before his acclamation. Gordian had assumed the name of his maternal grandfather in 238 AD.
Trebonianus Gallus
Trebonianus Gallus, also known as Gallus, was Roman Emperor from June 251 to August 253, in a joint rule with his son Volusianus.
Herennius Etruscus
Herennius Etruscus, was Roman emperor in 251, ruling jointly with his father Decius. He was born in c.227AD. His father was proclaimed emperor by his troops in September 249 while in Pannonia and Moesia, in opposition to Emperor Philip the Arab. Decius defeated Philip in battle, and was also proclaimed emperor by the Roman Senate. Herennius Etruscus was elevated to caesar in 250, then further raised to augustus in May 251. When the Goths, under Cniva, invaded the Danubian provinces, Herennius Etruscus was sent with a vanguard, followed by the main body of Roman troops, led by Decius. They ambushed Cniva at the Battle of Nicopolis ad Istrum, routing him, before being ambushed and routed themselves at the Battle of Beroe. Herennius Etruscus was killed in the Battle of Abritus, alongside his father. After the deaths of both emperors, Trebonianus Gallus, who had been governor of Moesia, was elected emperor by the remaining Roman forces.
Pescennius Niger
Pescennius Niger was Roman Emperor from 193 to 194 during the Year of the Five Emperors. He claimed the imperial throne in response to the murder of Pertinax and the elevation of Didius Julianus, but was defeated by a rival claimant, Septimius Severus, and killed while attempting to flee from Antioch.
Cniva
Cniva was a Gothic king who invaded the Roman Empire. He successfully captured the city of Philippopolis in 250 and killed Emperor Decius and his son Herennius Etruscus at the Battle of Abritus as he was attempting to leave the Empire in 251. This was the first time a Roman Emperor had been killed in combat against barbarians. He was allowed by the new Emperor Trebonianus Gallus to leave with his spoils and was paid tribute to stay out of the empire.
Thysdrus
Thysdrus was a Carthaginian town and Roman colony near present-day El Djem, Tunisia. Under the Romans, it was the center of olive oil production in the provinces of Africa and Byzacena and was quite prosperous. The surviving amphitheater is a World Heritage Site.
Julius Marinus
Julius Marinus was the father of Roman Emperor Philip the Arab and Philip's brother Gaius Julius Priscus. He was deified by his son. Scholar Pat Southern writes that this deification was unusual because Marinus was not an emperor, but it gave Philip's reign more legitimacy.
Marcia Otacilia Severa
Marcia Otacilia Severa or Otacilia Severa was the Empress of Rome and wife of Emperor Marcus Julius Philippus or Philip the Arab, who reigned over the Roman Empire from 244 to 249. She was a member of the ancient gens Otacilia, of consular and senatorial rank. Her father was Otacilius Severus or Severianus, who served as Roman Governor of Macedonia and Moesia, while her mother was a member of gens Marcia or was related to the gens. According to sources she had a brother called Severianus, who served as Roman Governor of Lower Moesia between 246–247.
Philip the Arab and Christianity
Philip the Arab was one of the few 3rd-century Roman emperors sympathetic to Christians, although his relationship with Christianity is obscure and controversial. Philip was born in Auranitis, an Arab district east of the Sea of Galilee. The urban and Hellenized centers of the region were Christianized in the early years of the 3rd century via major Christian centers at Bosra and Edessa; there is little evidence of Christian presence in the small villages of the region in this period, such as Philip's birthplace at Philippopolis. Philip served as praetorian prefect, commander of the Praetorian Guard, from 242; he was made emperor in 244. In 249, after a brief civil war, he was killed at the hands of his successor, Decius.
Maximinus Thrax
Maximinus Thrax, also known as Maximinus I, was Roman Emperor from 235 to 238.
Gordian dynasty
The Gordian dynasty, sometimes known as the Gordianic dynasty, was short-lived, ruling the Roman Empire from 238–244AD. The dynasty achieved the throne in 238AD, after Gordian I and his son Gordian II rose up against Emperor Maximinus Thrax and were proclaimed co-emperors by the Roman Senate. Gordian II was killed by the governor of Numidia, Capillianus and Gordian I killed himself shortly after, either 21 or 36 days after he was declared emperor. On 22 April 238, Pupienus and Balbinus, who were not of the Gordian dynasty, were declared co-emperors but the Senate was forced to make Gordian III a third co-emperor on 27 May 238, due to the demands of the Roman people. Maximinus attempted to invade Italy but he was killed by his own soldiers when his army became frustrated. After this, the Praetorian Guard killed Pupienus and Balbinus, leaving Gordian III as the sole emperor. Gordian III ruled until 244AD when he was either killed after his betrayal by Philip the Arab, killed by Philip the Arab or killed at the Battle of Misiche; with his death, the dynasty was ended and Philip the Arab became emperor.
