Gordianus in Harpers Dictionary of Classical Antiquities

M. Antonius Africanus, son of Gordianus, was instructed by Serenus Samonicus, who left him his library, which consisted of 62,000 volumes. He was well informed, and wrote several works, but was rather too fond of pleasure, which latter circumstance seems to have recommended him to the favour of the emperor Elagabalus. Alexander Severus advanced him subsequently to the consulship. He afterwards passed into Africa as lieutenant to his father, and, when the latter was elevated to the throne, shared that dignity with him. But, after a reign of not quite two months, he fell in battle, at the age of forty-six, against Capellianus, a partisan of Maximinus. (See Gordianus, 1.)