Manius Laberius Maximus

Manius Laberius Maximus was a Roman who lived in the 1st and 2nd centuries. Maximus was a significant Roman Senator and military figure in the reigns of Roman Emperors Domitian and Trajan.

He was a member of a family that originated in Lanuvium, where his presumed grandfather, Lucius Laberius Maximus, was a magistrate. His father, also Lucius Laberius Maximus, was a high equestrian official who was successively praefectus annonae, Prefect of Egypt and Praetorian prefect in the years 80-84. His mother is unknown. Lucius' achievements enabled his son to be adlected to the senatorial order.

Maximus was a suffect consul (see Roman consul) in 89 and is believed to have been Legatus of Numidia before becoming governor of Moesia Inferior in 100-101. (While in Moesia a slave of his, Callidromus, was captured by the Dacians: this man was interviewed in Bithynia in 111 by Pliny the Younger - see Pliny, Ep., X, 74). Maximus was a general in Trajan's Dacian Wars of 101 and 102 and according to Cassius Dio particularly distinguished himself in the latter campaign. He was rewarded for his services with a second consulship in 103 as colleague to the Emperor himself, a sign of high favour. The favour did not last. According to Augustan History (Hadrian, V, 5) on the accession of emperor Hadrian in 117 Maximus was 'in exile on an island under suspicion of designs on the throne'. Nothing more is known of these suspected designs, but they prompted Hadrian's guard prefect Publius Acilius Attianus to recommend Maximus be put to death. The sequel is not known, but Hadrian was tiring of Attianus and it is more likely that Maximus was pardoned.

The identity of Maximus’ wife is unknown. His only known child was a daughter, Laberia Hostilia Crispina. After his death, Crispina became the heiress to his fortune. Crispina became the second wife of Roman consul and senator Caius Bruttius Praesens Lucius Fulvius Rusticus. Crispina bore Praesens a son, the future consul Lucius Fulvius Gaius Bruttius Praesens Laberius Maximus 'Polyonymus'. Through his grandchild, Maximus was the great-grandfather of the consul Lucius Bruttius Quintius Crispinus and the Roman empress Bruttia Crispina, who married the Roman Emperor Commodus. Through Lucius Bruttius Quintius Crispinus, he had further descendants who would become consuls.