Marcus Magius Maximus was an eques active during the reign of the emperor Augustus. Maximus was prefect of Roman Egypt from AD 12 to 14.[1] It was thought Maximus had been appointed prefect of Egypt twice -- the only person to hold this office twice -- based almost solely on a problematic passage in Philo's In Flaccum, but John Rea has shown this passage can be read more plausibly in a different way, removing all support for this belief.[2]
While prefect of Egypt, Maximus had an obelisk that Ptolemy II Philadelphus had erected as a memorial to his wife and sister Arsinoe II in Alexandria moved to the market-place because it was in the way of the harbor.[3]
An inscription from Aeclanum near Beneventum suggests that Magius Maximus was also procurator of Hispania Tarraconensis.[4] However, H. G. Pflaum has argued that the more usual path from procurator of that province was to that of Syria, which would make Maximus' inferred career unusual.[5]
References edit
- ^ Guido Bastianini, "Lista dei prefetti d'Egitto dal 30a al 299p", Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik, 17 (1975), p. 269
- ^ Rea, "Five Papyrological Notes on Imperial Prosopography", Chronique d'Egypte, 43 (1968), pp. 365-367 doi:10.1484/J.CDE.2.308138
- ^ Pliny the Elder, Naturalis Historia, xxxvi.68f
- ^ CIL IX, 1125 = ILS 1335
- ^ Pflaum, "A propos des Préfets d'Égypte d'Arthur Stein", Latomus, 10 (1951), pp. 472f
Further reading edit
- Rudolf Hanslik, "Marcus Magius Maximus II 3", Der Kleine Pauly, Band 3 (Stuttgart 1969), col. 882.