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Balbinus
Emperor of the Roman Empire
Coin of Balbinus
Reign	22 April - 29 July 238 (with Pupienus, and in opposition to Maximinus Thrax)
Full name	Decius Caelius Calvinus Balbinus
Died	29 July 238
	Rome
Predecessor	Gordian I and II
Successor	Gordian III

Decimus Caelius Calvinus Balbinus born about 165, was jointly Roman Emperor with Pupienus between April and July of 238, the Year of the Six Emperors.

Not much is known about Balbinus before his elevation to emperor. It has been conjectured that he descended from Publius Coelius Balbinus Vibullus Pius, the consul ordinarius of 137. He was a patrician from birth, and was the son (either by birth or adoption) of Caelius Calvinus, who was legate of Cappadocia in 184. According to Herodian he had governed provinces, but the list of seven provinces given in the Historia Augusta, as well as the statement that Balbinus had been both Proconsul of Asia and of Africa, are likely to be mere invention. He had certainly been twice consul; his first consulate is not certainly known but is believed to have been about 203; he was consul for the second time in 213 as colleague of Caracalla, which suggests he enjoyed that emperor's favour.

When the Gordians were proclaimed Emperors in Africa, the Senate appointed a committee of twenty men, including Balbinus, to co-ordinate operations against Maximinus Thrax. On the news of the Gordians' defeat, the Senate met in closed session in the Temple of Jupiter and voted Pupienus and Balbinus as co-emperors, though they were soon forced to co-opt the child Gordian III as a colleague. Balbinus was probably in his early seventies: his qualifications for rule are unknown, except presumably that he was a senior senator, rich and well-connected. While Pupienus marched to Ravenna, where he oversaw the campaign against Maximinus, Balbinus remained in Rome, but failed to keep public order. The sources suggest that after Pupienus's victorious return following Maximinus' death, Balbinus suspected Pupienus of wanting to supplant him, and they were soon living in different parts of the Imperial palace, where they were later assassinated by disaffected elements of the Praetorian Guard.

The 'sarcophagus of Balbinus' has earned this Emperor of short and inglorious reign a niche in the history of Roman Imperial art. It was presumably while he was Emperor that Balbinus had a marble sarcophagus made for himself and his wife (whose name is unknown). Discovered in fragments near the Via Appia and restored, this is the only example of a Roman Imperial sarcophagus of this type to have survived. On the lid are reclining figures of Balbinus and his wife, the figure of the Emperor also being a fine portrait of him. Although in accounts of their joint reign Balbinus is emphasized as the civilian as against Pupienus the military man, on the side of the sarcophagus he is portrayed in full military dress.

• Media related to Balbinus from the Wikimedia Commons.
• good portrait bust
• portrait head from the sarcophagus as an example of Roman 'pathetic' style