Lucius Postumius Albinus (consul 234 and 229 BC)

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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 the son of Aulus Postumius Albinus, but his father was probably not the Aulus Postumius Albinus who was consul 242 BC and flamens martialis.

He was elected to highest office three times, for the years 234, 229 and 216 BC. In 228/7 BC, he was the leader of a Roman military campaign against the Illyrian queen Teuta, but he did not celebrate a triumph for this victory upon his return.^[1]

In 216 BC, as a consul elect, but still in the rank of a praetor, he was to lead his army of two legions plus reinforcements through a forest in Gallia Cisalpina, where a force of Celtic Boii warriors ambushed him and 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's skull was then clad in gold and made into a sacrificial bowl, 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."^[2]

[edit] Notes

[edit] References

• Livy, History of Rome, Rev. Canon Roberts (translator), Ernest Rhys (Ed.); (1905) London: J. M. Dent & Sons, Ltd.
• Polybius, Histories, Evelyn S. Shuckburgh (translator); London, New York. Macmillan (1889); Reprint Bloomington (1962).

[edit] See also

• Head hunting, with a short reference to the Celtic practice of collecting defeated enemies' heads.

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 Iunius 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)