Pomponius Bassus was a Roman Senator

Roman Senate

The Senate of the Roman Republic was a political institution in the ancient Roman Republic, however, it was not an elected body, but one whose members were appointed by the consuls, and later by the censors. After a magistrate served his term in office, it usually was followed with automatic...

 that lived in the Roman Empire

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....

.

The father of Pomponius Bassus was probably Gaius Pomponius Bassus Terentianus (ca 155-aft. 193), who served as a suffect consul around 193 and the name of his mother is unknown.

Bassus under the Roman Emperor Lucius Septimius Severus

Septimius Severus

Septimius Severus , also known as Severus, was Roman Emperor from 193 to 211. Severus was born in Leptis Magna in the province of Africa. As a young man he advanced through the customary succession of offices under the reigns of Marcus Aurelius and Commodus. Severus seized power after the death of...

 served as an ordinary consul. Between 212-217 Bassus served as a Legatus

Legatus

A legatus was a general in the Roman army, equivalent to a modern general officer. Being of senatorial rank, his immediate superior was the dux, and he outranked all military tribunes...

 of Inferior or Superior Moesia

Moesia

Moesia was an ancient region and later Roman province situated in the Balkans, along the south bank of the Danube River. It included territories of modern-day Southern Serbia , Northern Republic of Macedonia, Northern Bulgaria, Romanian Dobrudja, Southern Moldova, and Budjak .-History:In ancient...

 and there is a possibility Bassus could have served as a Roman Governor of Mysia

Mysia

Mysia was a region in the northwest of ancient Asia Minor or Anatolia . It was located on the south coast of the Sea of Marmara. It was bounded by Bithynia on the east, Phrygia on the southeast, Lydia on the south, Aeolis on the southwest, Troad on the west and by the Propontis on the north...

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Bassus in 216-218, married the wealthy heiress and noblewoman Annia Aurelia Faustina

Annia Faustina

Annia Aurelia Faustina was an Anatolian Roman noblewoman. She was an Empress of Rome and third wife of Roman Emperor Elagabalus briefly in 221.-Ancestry & Family:...

, who was the great granddaughter of Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius and Roman Empress Faustina the Younger

Faustina the Younger

Annia Galeria Faustina Minor , Faustina Minor or Faustina the Younger was a daughter of Roman Emperor Antoninus Pius and Roman Empress Faustina the Elder. She was a Roman Empress and wife to her maternal cousin Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius...

. When Bassus married Faustina, they had settled and lived in Faustina’s large estate in Pisidia

Pisidia

Pisidia was a region of ancient Asia Minor located north of Lycia, and bordering Caria, Lydia, Phrygia and Pamphylia. It corresponds roughly to the modern-day province of Antalya in Turkey...

. The marriage of Bassus and Faustina was a happy one and they lived in domestic tranquility. There are inscriptions at the Pisidian Estate stating that Bassus as the husband of Faustina and the owner of the Pisidia Estate with Faustina. Faustina bore Bassus at least two known children: a daughter called Pomponia Ummidia

Pomponia Ummidia

Pomponia Ummidia was Anatolian Roman noblewoman and was a prominent figure in Rome during the reigns of the Roman Emperors Gallienus, Claudius Gothicus, Quintillus and Aurelian. She lived in the period the Crisis of the Third Century in the Roman Empire.Pomponia Ummidia came from a distinguished...

 (born 119) and a son, Pomponius Bassus

Pomponius Bassus (consul 259 & 271)

Pomponius Bassus was a Roman Senator of Anatolian descent who lived in the Roman Empire.Bassus was of Italian Roman, Pontian Greek ancestry, who came from a distinguished senatorial family...

 (born 220).

Before June 221, Roman Emperor

Roman Emperor

The Roman emperor was the ruler of the Roman State during the imperial period . The Romans had no single term for the office although at any given time, a given title was associated with the emperor...

 Elagabalus

Elagabalus

Elagabalus , also known as Heliogabalus, was Roman Emperor from 218 to 222. A member of the Severan Dynasty, he was Syrian on his mother's side, the son of Julia Soaemias and Sextus Varius Marcellus. Early in his youth he served as a priest of the god El-Gabal at his hometown, Emesa...

was attracted to the charm, beauty and imperial descent of Faustina. The emperor desired Faustina to be his wife. Bassus became an innocent victim of the cruelty of Elagabalus. Elagabalus ordered the Roman Senate to put Bassus to death under some frivolous pretext. When Bassus was executed, Elagabalus forbade Faustina to mourn the death of Bassus.

In July 221, Elagabalus married Faustina as his third wife. This marriage lasted briefly as Elagabalus ended his marriage to Faustina and divorced her by the end of 221.

Sources

• Descriptive catalogue of a cabinet of Roman imperial large-brass medals By William Henry Smyth 1834
• The Cities and Bishoprics of Phrygia: Being an Essay of the Local History of Phrygia from the Earliest Times to the Turkish Conquest Volume One, Part One - By William M. Ramsay 2004
• http://www.ancientlibrary.com/smith-bio/0482.html
• http://wc.rootsweb.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?op=GET&db=bernd-jansen&id=I44008