Gnaeus Claudius Severus Arabianus (113 – after 176) was a senator and philosopher who lived in the Roman Empire.

Life

Severus was the son of the consul and first Roman Governor of Arabia Petraea, Gaius Claudius Severus, by a mother whose name is unknown. Severus was of Pontian Greek descent. He was born and raised in Pompeiopolis, a city in the Roman province of Galatia. When Severus had come to Rome during the reign of Emperor Hadrian (117-138), he had become a philosophical mentor and a teacher to Roman noble students. Among his students was the future Emperor Marcus Aurelius, with whom he had become friends. In Rome, Severus assumed a reputation as a man of spirit and as a great philosophical mentor. He was a follower of peripatetic philosophy and later served as an ordinary consul in 146 in the reign of Antoninus Pius (138-161). He married a woman, name unknown, and they had a son called Gnaeus Claudius Severus. Severus was evidently a politician with a deep interest in political philosophy, as evidenced by Marcus Aurelius’ opinion of him in Meditations (1.14n):

Sources