Gaius Vibius Maximus was an eques active during the reign of the emperors Domitian, Nerva and Trajan. His appointments include prefect of Roman Egypt. Maximus was also a figure in literary circles, and said to have written a history that has not survived.

Life

The earliest step known in Maximus' career is that he was prefect of an ala in Syria,[1] one of the steps of the tres militiae that most equestrians followed. The poet Statius is our source for his next known appointment: in his Silvae Statius begs Maximus to leave Dalmatia, where he apparently held an appointment as procurator, and return to Rome to be with his sick son; Statius hopes this son will show an aptitude for writing history like his father.[2]

His final known posting was as prefect of Egypt, which he held from 103 to 107.[3] When his friend Pliny the Younger heard of Maximus' appointment, he wrote to him on behalf of Arrianus Maturus, a citizen of Altinum, asking Maximus to find a position for Maturus.[4] While governor of Egypt, he issued an edict that a census (apographa) be conducted for that province.[5] He is also attested as being requested to make a decision in a lawsuit over a property dispute in Oxyrhynchus.[6] During his tenure Maximus visited the Colossi of Memnon at dawn of 16 February 104 and heard the statue sing.[7]

If he is the same Maximus Pliny addressed one of his later letters, then Vibius Maximus was engaged in a fierce rivalry with Gaius Pompeius Planta, one of his predecessors as prefect of Egypt.[8] However, experts believe this Maximus is a different man: Sherwin-White argues that this letter was addressed to Novius Maximus.[1] Another possible identification for this Maximus is Maesius Maximus.

After he completed his appointment as prefect of Egypt, Vibius Maximus was condemned on a serious charge, suffered damnatio memoriae, and his name was erased from public inscriptions.[1]

References

  1. 1 2 3 A. N. Sherwin-White, The letters of Pliny: a historical and social commentary (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1966), p. 210
  2. ↑ Statius, Silvae, iv.7
  3. ↑ Guido Bastianini, "Lista dei prefetti d'Egitto dal 30a al 299p", Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik, 17 (1975), p. 280
  4. ↑ Pliny, Epistulae, iii.2
  5. ↑ Papyrus Londinium, 904. English translation in A. S. Hunt and C.C. Edgar, Select Papyri, II. Non-literary Papyri. Public Documents (London: Loeb, 1932), pp. 108f. Apographa is the same term that is used in the Gospel of Luke (2:1-4) to refer to the census conducted at the time of the birth of Christ.
  6. ↑ Papyrus Oxyrhynchus, xxxviii.2852
  7. ↑ CIL III, 38
  8. ↑ Pliny, Epistulae, ix.1
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