Vitalianus
praetorian praefect under Maximinus, his devoted adherent and the willing instrument of his cruelty, was assassinated at Rome A. D. 238 by the emissaries of the Gordians before the events in Africa had been made known publicly. The details will be found in Herodian (7.14) and in Capitolinus (Gordian. tres, 10). See also Capitol. Maxim. duo, 14, where Valeriano is a false reading for Vitaliano.
From William Smith (ed.), Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology. Text provided under a CC BY-SA license by Perseus Digital Library, http://www.perseus.tufts.edu, with funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities and Tufts University. Data accessed from https://github.com/PerseusDL/canonical-pdlrefwk/ on 17 October 2026.