Events By Place Roman Empire February 11 — Emperor Gordian III's killed by his Praetorian Prefect Philip the Arab after Philip replaces Timesitheus and then declares himself co-emperor. Philip the Arab becomes Emperor. Rome loses Mesopotamia and Armenia to the Sassanides. Aurelian defeats the Franks at Mainz. Philip the Arab constructs the city of Shahba, in Syria, the province of his birth. By Topic Arts and Sciences Plotinus founds his Neoplatonist school in Rome. 244-249 - Phi… (More on 244)