Orichalcum Sestertius, A.D. 238, Rome, 30.0mm, 19.76g, 0°, RIC IVii 15, C 11; rare.
Obv: IMB CAES D CAEL BALBINVS AVG. Laureate, draped and cuirassed bust right.
Rev: LIBERALITAS AVGVSTORVM. Liberalitas standing left, holding abacus and cornucopia; S C in field.
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Decimus Caelius Calvinus Balbinus Pius Augustus was Roman Emperor with Pupienus for three months in 238. Not much is known about Balbinus before his elevation to emperor. It is known that he served as consul twice; it is uncertain when he served his first consulate; he was consul for the second time in 213 as colleague of Caracalla, which suggests he enjoyed that emperor's favor.

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 at this time and 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 in an attempt to keep public order. Pupienus soon returned upon the assassination of Maximinus. Factions within the Senate who had hoped to profit from the accession of the Gordians manipulated the people and the Praetorian Guard to agitate for the elevation of Gordian III as emperor. The Praetorians already resented serving under a Senate appointed emperor and now plotted to kill them. Pupienus, becoming aware of the threat, begged Balbinus to call for the German bodyguard. Balbinus, who already distrusted Pupienus and believing that this was part of a plot to have him assassinated, refused, and the two began to argue just as the Praetorians burst into the room. Both emperors were seized and dragged back to the Praetorian barracks where they were tortured and brutally hacked to death.