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]