Claudia Severa (c. 70-c. 130 CE) was the wife of Aelius Brocchus, commander of a Roman fort near Vindolanda on Hadrian's Wall. Her **birthday party invitation to her friend Sulpicia Lepidina ("darling soul")**, written on a wooden tablet around 100 CE, is **the earliest surviving handwritten document by a woman in Latin** — possibly even her own handwriting at the end ("farewell, sister, my dearest soul").
Discovered at Vindolanda; now at the British Museum.
Claudia Severa reduces to two — the number of Vindolanda matron.