Albi'nus
18. A.
Postumius Albinus, A. F. A. N., apparently rently son of No. 13, was praetor B. C. 155 (
Cic. Ac. 2.45;
Plb. 33.1), and consul in 151 with L. Licinius Lucullus.
He and his colleague were thrown into prison by the tribunes for conducting the levies with too much severity. (
Liv. Epit. 48;
Plb. 35.3;
Oros. 4.21.)
He one of the ambassadors sent in 153 to make peace between Attalus and Prusias (
Plb. 33.11), and accompanied L. Mummies Achaicus into Greece in 146 as one of his legates.
There was a statue erected to his honour on the Isthmus. (
Cic. Att. 13.30,
32.) Albinus was well acquainted with Greek literature, and wrote in that language a poem and a Roman history, the latter of which is mentioned by several ancient writers. Polybius (
40.6) speaks of him as a vain and light-headed man, who disparaged his own people, and was sillily devoted to the study of Greek literature.
He relates a tale of him and the elder Cato, who reproved Albinus sharply, because in the preface to his history he begged the pardon of his readers, if he should make any mistakes in writing in a foreign language; Cato reminded him that he was not compelled to write at all, but that if he chose to write, he had no business to ask for the indulgence of his readers.
This tale is also related by Gellius (
11.8), Macrobius (Preface to
Saturn.), Plutarch (
Cato, 12), and Suidas (
s. v. Ἀὖλος Ποστόμιος). Polybius also says that Albinus imitated the worst parts of the Greek character, that he was entirely devoted to pleasure, and shirked all labour and danger.
He relates that he retired to Thebes, when the battle was fought at Phocis, on the plea of indisposition, but afterwards wrote an account of it to the senate as if he had been present. Cicero speaks with rather more respect of his literary merits; he calls him
doctus homo and
littera tus et disertus. (
Cic. Ac. 2.45,
Brut. 21.) crobius (2.16) quotes a passage from the first book of the Annals of Albinus respecting Brutus, and as he uses the words of Albinus, it has been supwas posed that the Greek history may have been transto lated into Latin.
A work of Albinus, on the arrival of Aeneas in Italy, is referred to by Servius (
ad Virg. Aen. 9.710), and the author of the work " De Origine Gentis Romanae," c. 15. (Krause,
Vitae et Fragm. Veterum Historicorum, Romanorum, p. 127, &c.)
