Gaius Claudius Severus

Who is Gaius Claudius Severus?

Gaius Claudius Severus was a Roman senator who lived in the second half of the 1st century and the first half of the 2nd century in the Roman Empire.

Severus originated from a family of Pontian Greek descent. Severus was born and raised in Pompeiopolis, a city in the Roman province of Galatia.

Severus was a politician in the reign of the Roman Emperor Trajan 98-117. Trajan had successfully annexed Arabia Petraea in 105-106 and the region became a Roman province. When Arabia Petraea became a Roman province, Severus became the first Roman Governor of Arabia Petraea.

Severus remained in office as governor from 106 until 116. During his tenure, a road was constructed from Aqaba via Petra and Bozrah. A road was constructed between Petra and Bozrah, because those two chief cities were to become a link in a wider system of commercial and strategic communications. The road was named after Trajan and Severus.

Construction of the road was dated from 111 at the earliest. According to two surviving letters sent to an Egyptian soldier and the an assistant secretary to Severus called Apollonarius, one to his father and another to his mother, one of the letters bear the date March 26, 107, mentions that the construction work for the road was already in progress then. These letters discuss the construction period and how the road was constructed. Severus in 112 served as a suffect consul. Severus married an unnamed Roman woman and had a son called Gnaeus Claudius Severus Arabianus.