Werner Eck has stated that he was from Arelate, but certainly came from Gallia Narbonensis; Silvanus was the son of the senator M. Pompeius M.f. Priscus, known from an unpublished senatus consultum of AD 20.Eck, "M. Pompeius Silvanus, consul designatus tertium: Ein Vertrauter Vespasians und Domitians", Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik, 9 (1972), p. 266 The additional three nomina of his name -- "Silvanus Staberius Flavianus" -- is due to either a testamentary adoption, or comes from his mother's family.
