Lucius Postumius Albinus (consul 234 BC)

For other people named Lucius Postumius Albinus, see Lucius Postumius Albinus (disambiguation).

Lucius Postumius A. f. A. n. Albinus (died 216 BC) was a Roman consul of the third century BC. Most of our knowledge about his career and his demise comes from Livy's Ab Urbe Condita. From his filiation, "A. f. A. n.", we know that he was probably the son of Aulus Postumius Albinus, consul in 242 BC.[1]

He was elected to highest office three times, for the years 234, 229 and 215 BC. In 228/7 BC, he was the leader of a Roman military campaign against the Illyrian queen Teuta.[2][3][4][5] However he did not celebrate a triumph for this victory upon his return.[6]

In 216 BC, with the rank of a praetor, he was to lead his army of two legions plus reinforcements against the Celtic Boii. The following year, in his absence, he was elected consul for the third time, although he did not live to officially enter consulship. While traveling through the Litana Silva forest in Gallia Cisalpina, Postumius was ambushed by a force of Boii warriors who annihilated most of his soldiers. Postumius and the remainder of the legions tried to escape over a nearby bridge, but they were slaughtered by a Boian detachement who guarded the crossing. The consul was decapitated, and his skull was then clad in gold and made into a sacrificial bowl.[7][8] As Livy tells us:

“ The Boii stripped the body of its spoils and cut off the head, and bore them in triumph to the most sacred of their temples. According to their custom they cleaned out the skull and covered the scalp with beaten gold; it was then used as a vessel for libations and also as a drinking cup for the priest and ministers of the temple.[9] ”

See also

Notes

  1. ^ Smith, William (1867), "Lucius Postumius Albinus (11)", in Smith, William, Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, 1, Boston: Little, Brown and Company, pp. 91, http://www.ancientlibrary.com/smith-bio/0100.html 
  2. ^ Eutropius, iii. 4
  3. ^ Orosius, iv. 13
  4. ^ Cassius Dio, Frag. 151
  5. ^ Polybius, ii. 11, &c., who erroneously calls him "Aulus" instead of "Lucius"
  6. ^ Pol. 2,11,1-12,8.
  7. ^ Polybius, iii. 106, 118
  8. ^ Cicero, Tusculanae Quaestiones i. 37
  9. ^ Liv. 23,24.

References

Preceded by
Titus Manlius Torquatus and Gaius Atilius Bulbus		 Consul of the Roman Republic
with Spurius Carvilius Maximus Ruga
234 BC		 Succeeded by
Quintus Fabius Maximus Verrucosus and Manius Pomponius Matho
Preceded by
Marcus Aemilius Barbula and Marcus Junius Pera		 Consul of the Roman Republic
with Gnaeus Fulvius Centumalus
229 BC		 Succeeded by
Spurius Carvilius Maximus Ruga and Quintus Fabius Maximus Verrucosus
Preceded by
Gaius Terentius Varro and Lucius Aemilius Paullus		 Consul of the Roman Republic
with Tiberius Sempronius Gracchus
215 BC		 Succeeded by
Tiberius Sempronius Gracchus and Marcus Claudius Marcellus (Suffect)