Pomponius Bassus (consul 259 & 271)

Pomponius Bassus [...]stus (220-after 271) was a Roman Senator of Anatolian descent who lived in the Roman Empire.

Bassus was of Italian Roman and Pontian Greek ancestry, caming from a distinguished senatorial family. Bassus was the son of an elder Pomponius Bassus, the Roman Senator who served as consul in 211 and the noble heiress Annia Aurelia Faustina, who was the great, granddaughter of Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius and Roman Empress Faustina the Younger. His sister was Pomponia Ummidia and through his mother, Bassus was a descendant of the former ruling Nerva–Antonine dynasty of the Roman Empire.

Bassus was born and raised in his mother’s large estate in Pisidia. When Bassus’ father died in c. 221, his mother was briefly married to the Roman Emperor Elagabalus, which the marriage ended by the end of that year.

Bassus was one of the most senior and well respected Roman Senators of his day. He held first consulship in 259 under the reign of the Roman Emperors Valerian and Gallienus. There is a possibility that Bassus rose to prominence after his first consulship.

Bassus being a senior consular, held various senior positions, including that of proconsular governor of either Africa or Asia, possibly around 260. Under the Roman Emperor Claudius Gothicus, Bassus was appointed as corrector totius Italiae, and he was a Comes Augusti (or companion of the emperor).^[1] In January 271, Bassus shared his second consulship with the Roman Emperor Aurelian, which was the Emperor’s first imperial consulship. Either during or after his second consulship, Bassus was appointed to the Praefectus urbi. Around this time, it appears Bassus was also the Princeps senatus.^[2]

Bassus married the noblewoman Pomponia Gratidia, by whom he had a daughter Pomponia Bassa (born ca. 250). Pomponia Bassa married Lucius Septimius Severus (b. ca 245), son of Lucius Septimius... (b. ca 210) and paternal grandson of Gaius Septimius Severus Aper. Their son was Septimius Bassus.

Sources

• Alaric Watson, Aurelian the third century. Routledge, 1999.
• William M. Ramsay, The Cities and Bishoprics of Phyrgia: Being an Essay of the Local History of Phrygia from the Earliest Times to the Turkish Conquest, Volume 1. 2004

References