Postumia gens

The gens Postumia was one of the most ancient patrician gentes at Rome. The nomen Postumius is based on the praenomen Postumus, presumably used by the ancestor of the gens. The name referred not, as popularly believed, to a child born after his father's death, but to a last-born or youngest child.

Posthumii frequently held the highest office of the state, from the banishment of the kings to the downfall of the Republic. The most distinguished family branch in the gens was that of Albus or Albinus. In the early Republic, the cognomina Megellus and Tubertus were also used by distinguished families. The first of the Postumii who obtained the consulship was Publius Postumius Tubertus in 505 BC, only four years after the expulsion of kings

In the Punic Wars and subsequently, some members of the gens Postumia use the cognomina Pyrgensis, Tempsanus and Tympanus. A few Postumii are mentioned without any cognomen.

List of Postumii

See Albinus for Postumii who carried the cognomen Albinus or the agnomen Regillensis.

• Publius Postumius Tubertus, consul 505 BC, son of a Quintus Postumius
• Aulus Postumius Tubertus, dictator 431 BC
• Lucius Postumius L.f. Sp.n. Megellus, consul 305 BC
• Lucius Postumius L.f. L.n. Megellus, consul 262 BC
• Lucius Postumius Tympanus, quaestor 194 BC
• Lucius Postumius Tempsanus, praetor assigned to Tarentum 185 BC
• Marcus Postumius Pyrgensis
• Aulus Postumius, military tribune 168 BC
• Postumius, a soothsayer, who predicted success to Sulla
• Marcus Postumius, quaestor of Verres in 73 BC
• Gnaeus Postumius, supporter of Servius Sulpicius
• Titus Postumius, an orator
• Postumius, a friend of Cicero
• Postumius, a legate of Caesar
• Publius Postumius, a friend of Marcus Marcellus
• Quintus Postumius, a Roman senator

Footnotes

 This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Smith, William, ed. (1870). Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology. {{cite encyclopedia}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)