Lucius Postumius Albinus
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Lucius Postumius Albinus was a statesman of the Roman Republic. He is not to be confused with his relative (father or uncle?), Lucius Postumius Albinus, who was killed in 216 BC.
Albinus was praetor 180 BC, and obtained the province of Hispania Ulterior. His command was prolonged in the following year. After conquering the Vaccaei and Lusitani, he returned to Rome in 178 BC, and was awarded a triumph on account of his victories.[1]
He was consul in 173 BC, with Marcus Popillius Laenas. The war in Liguria was assigned to both consuls. Albinus, however, was first sent into Campania to separate the land of the state from that of private persons, because private land owners had slowly expanded their boundaries into public land. This business occupied him all the summer, so that he was unable to go into his province. He was the first Roman magistrate who put the Latin allies to any expense when a magistrate travelled through their territories. [2] The festival of the Floralia, which had been discontinued, was restored in his consulship.[3]
In 171 BC, he was one of the ambassadors sent to Masinissa and the Carthaginians in order to raise troops for the war against Perseus of Macedon.[4] In 169 he was an unsuccessful candidate for the censorship.[5] He served under Lucius Aemilius Paullus in Macedonia in 168 BC, and commanded the second legion in the battle with Perseus.[6] During the war, he was sent to plunder the town of Aeniae.[7]
Albinus suffered some degree of mockery by Cato the Elder, according to Polybius and Plutarch, for his attempt to compose a comprehensive history in Greek and apologizing, in his own preface, for his poor grasp of the language, and for his adulation of all things Greek.[8][9]
[edit] References
- ^ Livy, Ab Urbe Condita, xl.35, 39, 44, 47-50; xli.6-7.
- ^ Livy, Ab Urbe Condita, xli.28; xlii.1, 9.
- ^ Ovid, Fasti, v.329; and an English translation.
- ^ Livy, Ab Urbe Condita, xlii.35.
- ^ Livy, Ab Urbe Condita, xliii.14.
- ^ Livy, Ab Urbe Condita, xliv.41.
- ^ Livy, Ab Urbe Condita, xlv.27.
- ^ Polybius, Histories, XXXIX.I.i.
- ^ Plutarch, Vitae Parallelae, Cato Maior 12.5.
This article incorporates text from the public domain Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology by William Smith (1870).
| Preceded by Spurius Postumius Albinus Paullulus and Quintus Mucius Scaevola |
Consul of the Roman Republic with Marcus Popillius Laenas 173 BC |
Succeeded by Gaius Popillius Laenas and Publius Aelius Ligus |
