Proculus (died c. 281) was a Roman usurper, one of the "minor pretenders" according to Historia Augusta,[1] who would have taken the purple against Emperor Probus in 280.

[2] Probably Proculus had family connection with the Franks, to whom he turned in vain when his bid for imperial power was failing.

He was married to a woman named Vituriga, who was given the nickname "Samso" for her capabilities (considered "unwomanly" by the fourth century author of Historia Augusta),[3] and at the time of his usurpation, he had one son, Herennianus, aged four.

"He was, nevertheless, of some benefit to the Gauls, for he crushed the Alamanni — who then were still called Germans — and not without illustrious glory, though he never fought save in brigand-fashion" (Historia Augusta) On his return from fighting the Sassanids in Syria, Probus forced Proculus to retreat north.

Of these I mated with ten in a single night..."[4] Gibbon comments of Proculus and his co-usurper Bonosus, a heavy drinker, that the "distinguished merit of those two officers was their respective prowess, of the one in the combats of Bacchus, of the other in those of Venus".