Marcus Magius Maximus was an eques active during the reign of the emperor Augustus. Maximus was the prefect of Roman Egypt from AD 12 to 14. 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. Still, John Rea has shown this passage can be read more plausibly differently, removing all support for this belief.
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 marketplace because it was in the way of the harbour.
An inscription from Aeclanum near Beneventum suggests that Magius Maximus was also a procurator of Hispania Tarraconensis. However, H. G. Pflaum has argued that the more usual path from the procurator of that province was to that of Syria, which would make Maximus’ inferred career unusual.
