Claudia Severa
Encyclopedia
Claudia Severa was a literate Roman
woman, the wife of Aelius Brocchus, commander of an unidentified fort near Vindolanda
fort in northern England
.
She is known for a birthday invitation she sent around 100 AD to Sulpicia Lepidina
, wife of Flavius Cerialis, commander at Vindolanda.
This invitation was discovered in the 1970s and is probably the best-known item of the Vindolanda Tablets
.
The letter was written partly by a scribe and partly in Claudia's own hand. The Vindolanda Tablets also contain a fragment from another letter in Claudia's hand. These two letters are thought to be the oldest extant writing by a Roman woman found in Britain, or perhaps anywhere.
. The
invitation was acquired by the Museum in 1986 (Registration number: 1986,1001.64).
Roman Empire
The Roman Empire was the post-Republican period of the ancient Roman civilization, characterised by an autocratic form of government and large territorial holdings in Europe and around the Mediterranean....
woman, the wife of Aelius Brocchus, commander of an unidentified fort near Vindolanda
Vindolanda
Vindolanda was a Roman auxiliary fort just south of Hadrian's Wall in northern England. Located near the modern village of Bardon Mill, it guarded the Stanegate, the Roman road from the River Tyne to the Solway Firth...
fort in northern England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
.
She is known for a birthday invitation she sent around 100 AD to Sulpicia Lepidina
Sulpicia Lepidina
Sulpicia Lepidina was the wife of Flavius Cerialis, prefect of the Ninth Cohort of Batavians, stationed at Vindolanda in Roman Britain about the turn of the 1st century AD....
, wife of Flavius Cerialis, commander at Vindolanda.
This invitation was discovered in the 1970s and is probably the best-known item of the Vindolanda Tablets
Vindolanda tablets
The Vindolanda tablets are "the oldest surviving handwritten documents in Britain". They are also probably our best source of information about life on Hadrian's Wall. Written on fragments of thin, post-card sized wooden leaf-tablets with carbon-based ink, the tablets date to the 1st and 2nd...
.
The letter was written partly by a scribe and partly in Claudia's own hand. The Vindolanda Tablets also contain a fragment from another letter in Claudia's hand. These two letters are thought to be the oldest extant writing by a Roman woman found in Britain, or perhaps anywhere.
Display of letter
The Vindolanda Tablets are on display at the British MuseumBritish Museum
The British Museum is a museum of human history and culture in London. Its collections, which number more than seven million objects, are amongst the largest and most comprehensive in the world and originate from all continents, illustrating and documenting the story of human culture from its...
. The
invitation was acquired by the Museum in 1986 (Registration number: 1986,1001.64).