Postumius

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Postumius was the gentile name (nomen gentile) of a patrician family of the Roman Republic . She was not one of the gentes maiores, nevertheless representatives of this family rose to the highest offices in Rome in the earliest phase of the republic. Until the 2nd century BC The Postumiers enjoyed great prestige.

The first known bearer of the name is Publius Postumius Tubertus (consul 505 and 503 BC). His grandson or great-grandson Aulus Postumius Tubertus is said to have been around 431 BC. Have executed his son; since then postumies with the cognomen tubertus have not appeared any more. 499 or 496 BC An Aulus Postumius Albus Regillensis was elected dictator or consul and in one of these two years allegedly won the battle at Regillus lacus against the Latins. The branch of the Postumii Albi or Postumii Albini family, descended from this dictator, continued well into the 4th century BC. The Cognomen Regillensis . In the 1st century BC The glorious ancestor was glorified on coins, most recently by the Caesar murderer Decimus Junius Brutus Albinus, who was adopted into this family . The consuls of 464 and 466 BC BC, Aulus and Spurius Postumius Albus Regillensis , are said to have been sons of the victorious dictator. Probably because the postumers later appeared very class-conscious, their early representatives, who lived in the period before the Decemvirate, were sometimes portrayed as determined advocates of the patricians' interests in the fight against the plebeians . At the time of the conquest of Rome by the Gauls (around 390 BC), according to Plutarch , the postumers were among the most prosperous Roman aristocratic families. In fact, a relatively large number of Postumii Albini are named as consular tribunes and censors in the fasting decades before and after the Gauls disaster, without it being possible to exactly reconstruct their relationships. In the middle of the 4th century BC They were less present in top politics, but were able to do so in 334 BC. Chr. With Spurius Postumius Albinus Caudinus again provide a consul, but this suffered in his second consulate in 321 BC. A heavy defeat against the Samnites .

However, Lucius Postumius Megellus could already at the turn of the 3rd to the 2nd century BC. To win the consulate three times; how he was related to the Postumii Albini is not known. This branch of the family flourished in any case from the middle of the 3rd century BC. BC again and therefore had many members in leading positions who, due to the small number of their first names (mostly Aulus , Lucius and Spurius ) were only distinguished by individual surnames. Beginning of the 2nd century BC In the time before the war against Perseus , the family achieved its greatest splendor through the three brothers Aulus Postumius Albinus Luscus , Spurius Postumius Albinus Paullulus and Lucius Postumius Albinus (consuls 180, 174 and 173 BC). But since the consul of 110 BC BC, Spurius Postumius Albinus , especially because of the failure of his brother Aulus, suffered a severe blow to Jugurtha in Africa , both brothers were condemned and the Postumians quickly lost all political influence forever. Aulus Postumius Albinus was 99 BC. The last consul that his line produced. After that, its members are no longer historically comprehensible.

The postumers were not only called to the highest government offices, but also sat on various priestly bodies. Apparently, members of this family came into contact with Greek education at an early age and were therefore used for diplomatic contacts with the Hellenistic world (e.g. Aulus Postumius Albinus ).

A few cases of postumers are known who did not belong to the patrician family. Some of them are of Etruscan descent, while others were freed in the late Roman Republic , as evidenced by inscriptions.

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literature

Remarks

  1. ↑ Livy 2, 19f.
  2. ↑ Eg Dionysius of Halicarnassus 10, 41, 5; 10, 42, 3.
  3. ↑ Plutarch , continued. Rome. 12.