Lucius Postumius Albinus (consul 234 and 229 BC)

:"For others of this gens, see Postumia gens. For other Postumii with the cognomen "Albus" or "Albinus", see Albinus (cognomen)."Lucius Postumius ("abbrev". L. P.) Albinus, or Lucius Postumius A.f. Albinus, not to be confused with his relative (son or nephew?) Lucius Postumius Albinus, was a Roman consul of the 3rd century BC. Most of our knowledge about his career and his demise comes from Livy's "Ab Urbe Condita". Based on his name, he was probably the son of Aulus Postumius Albinus.Citation | last = Smith | first = William | author-link = William Smith (lexicographer) | contribution = Lucius Postumius Albinus (11) | editor-last = Smith | editor-first = William | title = Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology | volume = 1 | pages = 91 | publisher = Little, Brown and Company | place = Boston | year = 1867 | contribution-url = http://www.ancientlibrary.com/smith-bio/0100.html ]

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. [Eutropius, iii. 4] [Orosius, iv. 13] [Cassius Dio, "Frag." 151] [Polybius, ii. 11, &c., who erroneously calls him "Aulus" instead of "Lucius"] However he did not celebrate a triumph for this victory upon his return. [Pol. 2,11,1-12,8.]

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. [Polybius, iii. 106, 118] [Cicero, "Tusculanae Quaestiones" i. 37] As Livy tells us:

Notes

References

*Livy, [http://mcadams.posc.mu.edu/txt/ah/Livy/ "History of Rome"] , Rev. Canon Roberts (translator), Ernest Rhys (Ed.); (1905) London: J. M. Dent & Sons, Ltd.
*Polybius, [http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?lookup=Plb.+1.1 "Histories"] , Evelyn S. Shuckburgh (translator); London, New York. Macmillan (1889); Reprint Bloomington (1962).