Gnaeus Claudius Severus was a Roman senator and philosopher who lived in the Roman Empire during the 2nd century AD.

Life

Severus was the son of the senator and philosopher Gnaeus Claudius Severus Arabianus 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. His paternal grandfather, Gaius Claudius Severus, was a consul and the first Roman governor of Arabia Petraea in the reign of the Emperor Trajan, 98–117. Like his father, Severus was a follower of peripatetic philosophy. Although Severus held no major political influence, he was considered as an influential figure in the intellectual and philosophical circles in Rome. Like his father, Severus was a friend and had a great influence on the Emperor Marcus Aurelius (161-180). It was probably Severus that introduced Marcus Aurelius to the rhetorician Cornelianus and recommended Galen to him as his personal physician. Severus and his father accompanied Marcus Aurelius on a philosophical visit to Athens in 176. Severus served as a suffect consul in 167 and an ordinary consul in 173. In the year of his second consulship, Severus became a patron and was made an honorary citizen of Pompeiopolis. That same year, an honorific inscription, which survives to this day on a statue base, was dedicated to Severus in his birth city:

Wives and children

Severus married twice:

Sources