Tranquillina

Who was Tranquillina?

Furia Sabinia Tranquillina or Sabinia Tranquillina 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. Christian Settipani suggests that they had a daughter, Furia, most likely posthumous, who married Marcus Maecius Orfitus, son of Marcus Maecius Probus, married to Pupiena Sextia Paulina Cethegilla, paternal grandson of Marcus Pomponius Maecius Probus and maternal grandson of Marcus Pupienus Africanus Maximus and wife Cornelia Marullina, by whom she had issue.