Lucius Antonius Proculus

Lucius Antonius Proculus was a Roman equestrian officer who served as praefectus of the Cohors I Batavorum Antoniniana in Britannia during the reign of the Severan emperors. He is known exclusively through a dedicatory altar erected to Mithras in the Mithraeum of Carrawburgh (Brocolitia) on Hadrian’s Wall (TNMM 527; CIMRM 845; RIB 1544).

His sandstone altar originally stood in the most prestigious position within the sanctuary: the central altar before the rear cult niche, flanked by the dedications of Aulus Cluentius Habitus and Marcus Simplicius Simplex. The arrangement of these three monumental altars strongly suggests that successive prefects of the Cohors I Batavorum acted as principal patrons of the temple and were closely associated with its maintenance and ritual life (Richmond & Gillam 1951; Chalupa 2023; Walsh 2016).

The inscription records that Proculus fulfilled a vow to Deus Invictus Mithras (votum solvit libens merito), making him one of the earliest securely identified devotees of the Carrawburgh Mithraic community. Because the unit bears the honorary title Antoniniana, the dedication can be dated with unusual precision to AD 213-222, during the period when the cohort officially used this distinction.

The Carrawburgh mithraeum itself was established at the beginning of the third century and underwent several architectural phases before its destruction in the disturbances of AD 296-297 and its brief rebuilding shortly afterwards. Proculus’ altar belongs to the sanctuary’s earliest period of use, providing important evidence for the rapid establishment of Mithraic worship among the officers of the Batavian cohort stationed on Hadrian’s Wall.