CACrown ArchivesThe cinema collection
Menu
Research dossier · General Reference

Quintus Baebius Macer

Roman consul 103 AD

Cross-disciplinary reference desk with index cards, atlas, dictionary and catalogue
General referenceInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionApr 11, 2026
Entity authorityQ1242065 ↗
Source-derived summary

Quintus Baebius Macer was a Roman senator active during the second half of the first century and the first half of the second century AD. He was suffect consul for the nundinium April to June 103 as the colleague of Publius Metilius Nepos, and Urban prefect of Rome. He was also a patron of the poet Martial and an acquaintance of Pliny the Younger. He was the recipient of a letter from Pliny where the writings of Pliny the Elder are listed, apparently in response to Macer's inquiry.

Baebius Macer's career is not completely known. Ronald Syme argues the date of his praetorship fell in the years 90 to 94. It is due to the poetry of Martial that we know of two of the offices he did hold: Macer was curator of the Via Appia around the year 95; then governor of Hispania Baetica, which Werner Eck dates to 100/101.

After he returned from Baetica, Macer was active in the Senate as an orator. Pliny mentions two occasions where he participated in the proceedings: during the first, which was prior to his consulate, Macer proposed one punishment in the prosecution of Julius Bassus for mismanagement of the province of Bithynia and Pontus; the second regarded money Marcus Egnatius Marcellinus owed to an imperial scribe upon completion of his service as quaestor in an unnamed province. As the scribe had died before the money could be paid, Macer proposed the money be paid to the scribe's heirs, while another senator proposed it should be paid to the imperial treasury.

Macer acceded to the office of urban prefect at an unknown time after his consulship, but definitely before the death of emperor Trajan.

Editorial summary

“Quintus Baebius Macer” enters the record as roman consul 103 AD. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Quintus, Baebius and Macer can confirm, complicate or overturn.

Editorial reviewA concise reference frame for defining the subject, testing terminology and identifying the institution closest to the evidence. The current 282-word lead offers orientation but no explicit four-digit date, so chronology should not be assumed. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 0050. Its strongest next move is a source search built around Quintus, Baebius and Macer.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

“Quintus Baebius Macer” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Quintus, Baebius and Macer provides the most credible route into that argument.

Evidence profile

Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Apr 11, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q1242065. VIAF identifies the subject as 50295884. 1 of 5 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank.

Critical limits

A concise general-reference account can conceal disagreements about scope, terminology or the weight assigned to individual sources. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.

Best used for
  • Subject orientation
  • Search vocabulary
  • Locating named sources
Verify next

The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Quintus Baebius Macer”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Quintus Baebius Macer primary sources, Quintus Baebius Macer archive and Quintus research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Quintus Baebius Macer”?
  2. Which cited source is closest to the event, object or claim?
  3. Which institution is responsible for the underlying evidence?
Subject index

Search terms from this dossier

Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Quintus Baebius Macer” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.