Junius Licinius Balbus
Junius Licinius Balbus was a Roman Senator who served as a Suffect Consul. He is known for being the husband of Antonia Gordiana, daughter of Gordian I and sister of Gordian II, and being the father of the Roman emperor Gordian III. Or so the Historia Augusta claims; modern historians dismiss this identification of the husband of Antonia Gordian and father of the child emperor.
According to the Historia Augusta, Balbus was the son of Junius Licinius Balbus, a man of consular rank and his wife, Servilia the daughter of the Roman nobles Ceionia Plautia, sister of Lucius Verus, and Quintus Servilius Pudens. Although Antonia Gordiana married an unnamed Roman Senator, modern historians suspect this connection to the Antonine dynasty to be a genealogical fabrication by the anonymous author of the Historia Augusta.
