Aulus Postumius Albus Regillensis (consul 496 BC)

Aulus Postumius Albus Regillensis was an ancient Roman who, according to Livy, was Roman dictator in 498 or 496 BC,[2] when he conquered the Latins in the great Battle of Lake Regillus[3] and subsequently celebrated a triumph.[4] Many of the coins of the Postumii Albi commemorate this victory of their ancestor, as in the one pictured. Roman folklore related that Castor and Pollux were seen fighting in this battle on the side of the Romans, whence the dictator afterwards promised a temple to Castor and Pollux in the Roman Forum.

Aulus Postumius Albus
Roman coin depicting the victory of Aulus Postumius. On one side the head of Diana is represented with the letters ROMA underneath, and on the reverse are three horsemen trampling a foot-soldier. This coin was minted by Aulus Postumius Albinus 96 BC.
Consul of the Roman Republic
In office
[1] 1 September 496 BC – 29 August 495 BC
Preceded byAulus Sempronius Atratinus, Marcus Minucius Augurinus
Succeeded byAppius Claudius Sabinus Regillensis, Publius Servilius Priscus Structus
Dictator of the Roman Republic
In office
496 BC – 496 BC
Preceded byTitus Larcius
Succeeded byManius Valerius Maximus
Personal details
BornUnknown
Ancient Rome
DiedUnknown
Ancient Rome

He was consul in 496 BC, in which year some of the annals, according to Livy, placed the battle of Lake Regillus; and it is to this year that Dionysius assigns it.[5][6][7][8] The name "Regillensis" is usually supposed to have been derived from this battle; but Niebuhr thinks that it was taken from a place of residence, just as the Claudii bore the same name, and that the later annalists only spoke of Postumius as commander in consequence of the name. Livy states expressly that Scipio Africanus was the first Roman who obtained a surname from his conquests.[9][10] In 495 BC, Postumius was chosen at short notice by the Romans to lead the cavalry to victory against a Sabine invading force.[11] In 493 BC Postumius was one of the ten envoys sent by the senate to treat with the plebeian leaders during the first secessio plebis.[12]

Postumius' career prior to his consulship and dictatorship is not known, but he might have been the military tribune who is mentioned in 504 BC serving under the consul Publius Valerius Poplicola.[13]

He was, according to some genealogies, the father of Spurius Postumius Albus Regillensis and Aulus Postumius Albus Regillensis.

See also

References
  1. Robert Maxwell Ogilvie, Commentary on Livy, books 1–5, Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1965, pp. 404, 405.
  2. Joseph Anton F. Wilhelm Ihne (1871). The history of Rome. pp. 104ff.
  3. Smith, William (1867), "Aulus Postumius Albus Regillensis", in Smith, William (ed.), Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, vol. 1, Boston: Little, Brown and Company, p. 90
  4. Fasti Triumphales
  5. Livy, Ab urbe condita, 2.19, 20, 21
  6. Dionysius, 6.2ff
  7. Valerius Maximus, i. 8. § 1
  8. Cicero, De Natura Deorum ii. 2, iii. 5
  9. Livy, 30.45
  10. Niebuhr, Hist. of Rome, i. p. 556
  11. Livy, 2.26
  12. Broughton, vol i, pp.15. Dionysius of Halicarnassus, vi.69.3,81.1-82.1
  13. Plutarch, Poplicola, 22.2

 This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Smith, William, ed. (1870). "Albinus (1)". Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology. Vol. 1. p. 90.


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