Lepcis Magna: Monument of Gavius Macer

Lepcis Magna: Phoenician colony, later part of the Carthaginian empire, the kingdom of Massinissa, and the Roman empire. Its most famous son was the emperor Septimius Severus (193-211).

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Monument of Gavius Macer

This is the base of a monument that the inhabitants of Lepcis Magna dedicated to Gaius Gavius Macer, a Roman senator from Verona who is known to have been quaestor in 19 CE. There must have been a statue on top of it, perhaps an equestrian statue, because the remains are too large for a normal one.

In the inscription, Gavius is mentioned as legatus pro praetore, which was the name of the right-hand man of the governor, who had the rank of legatus pro consule. Probably, Gavius was the deputy of Gaius Vibius Marsus (who dedicated this inscription to Augusta Salutaris).

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Gaio GAVIO MACRO
LEGato PRO PRaetore III
LEPTICANI PVBLICE

To Gaius Gavius Macer,
legatus pro praetore III,
on behalf of the government of the Lepcitanians

The inscription is included in J.M. Reynolds & J.B. Ward Perkins, Inscriptions of Roman Tripolitania (1952 London), #531.