Tiberius Claudius Severus Proculus (about 163-by 218) was a Roman Senator that lived in the Roman Empire.
Severus Proculus was born of noble descent. He was from a wealthy, prominent, distinguished family in Pompeiopolis, a city in the Roman province of Galatia. He was the son of the Pontian Greek Roman Senator and Peripatetic Philosopher, Gnaeus Claudius Severus and his second wife the Roman Princess Annia Aurelia Galeria Faustina. Severus Proculus was of Pontian Greek and Italian Roman descent. He had a paternal half-brother called Marcus Claudius Ummidius Quadratus, the child from his father’s first marriage. His paternal half-brother was adopted by the Roman Consul Marcus Ummidius Quadratus Annianus, who was the nephew of the Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius.
His paternal grandfather Gnaeus Claudius Severus Arabianus, was a Roman Senator and Peripatetic Philosopher. He was a one of the teachers of Marcus Aurelius, whom later the two had become friends. His maternal grandparents were the Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius and Roman Empress Faustina the Younger. Through his mother, Severus Proculus was a relative to the ruling Nerva–Antonine dynasty of the Roman Empire. Among his maternal aunts and uncles were the Roman Empress Lucilla and Roman Emperor Commodus.
Severus Proculus was born and raised in Pompeiopolis. It is unknown whether if he had become a follower of Peripatetic Philosophy. When Marcus Aurelius died in 180, Commodus succeeded his father and ruled as Roman Emperor until 192.
It appears that Severus Proculus wasn’t involved in any plots to kill or overthrow Commodus. When his maternal uncle was assassinated in December 192, Pertinax assumed briefly the Roman throne. When Pertinax succeeded Commodus, Severus Proculus was one of Commodus’ few remaining living male relatives. He was completely ignored as a potential successor to Commodus.
In 193, after the deaths of the brief Roman Emperors Pertinax and Didius Julianus, Lucius Septimius Severus finally became a stable Roman Emperor and founded a new imperial dynasty, known as the Severan dynasty. During the reign of Lucius Septimius Severus (193-211), Proculus Severus served as a Roman Senator and in 200 served as an ordinary consul.
After his consulship, Severus Proculus had married his maternal second cousin Annia Faustina, who was the granddaughter of Marcus Aurelius’ sister, Annia Cornificia Faustina and was a wealthy heiress. After Severus Proculus married Annia Faustina, they had settled to live in his wife’s large great estate in Pisidia. On the estate there is an honorific inscription dated in 207, stating that the owners of the estate was Severus Proculus and Annia Faustina.
Around 201, Severus Proculus and Annia Faustina had a daughter called Annia Aurelia Faustina. When his daughter was born, Severus Proculus did not name the child after himself. It appears that Severus Proculus, named his daughter in honor of his mother’s family the gens Aurelia and gens Annia. It also appears that his daughter was named in honor of his wife and her maternal ancestry. By giving their daughter that name, Severus Proculus and Annia Faustina, are honoring, their relations and links to the Nerva–Antonine dynasty. Severus Proculus and Annia Faustina seem not to have any more children. Their daughter was born and raised on the Pisidian Estate.
About 216, Severus Proculus may have made a political alliance with a Roman Senator who was a member of the Pomponia (gens). In the result, his daughter married her first husband, the Roman Politician Pomponius Bassus. Later in 221 Annia Aurelia Faustina, would become a brief Roman Empress and marry the Roman Emperor Elagabalus (218-222) as her second husband. Elagabalus’ marriage with Annia Aurelia Faustina would have been his third marriage.
| Political offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by Publius Cornelius Anullinus , Marcus Aufidius Fronto |
Consul of the Roman Empire 200 with Gaius Aufidius Victorinus |
Succeeded by Lucius Annius Fabianus, Marcus Nonius Arrius Mucianus |