A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology. By various writers. Ed. by William Smith. Illustrated by numerous engravings on wood.

510 POSTUMIA. - POSTUMUS.
their leaders on several occasions, and was one of the Punic wars, and subsequently, we also find
the four prelates despatched in 410 by the ortho- the surnames PYRGENSIS, TEMPSANUS, and TYIdox party in Africa to Honorius, for the purpose PANUS. A few Postumii are mentioned without
of soliciting a repeal of the law which had been any surname: these are given below.
passed il favour of their heretical opponents. He POSTU'MIUS. 1. A. POSTUMnUS, tribunus
next took a prominent part in the councils held militum in B. C. 180. (Liv. xl. 41.)
against Caelestius and Pelagius. In A. D. 430 he 2. C. POSTUMIUS, tribunus militum in B. C. 168.
was driven from Calama by the Vandals, sought (Liv. xlv. 6.)
refuge at Hippo, and while that city was besieged, 3. PosTuMius, a soothsayer, who predicted
watched over the deathbed of his preceptor and success to Sulla, and told him to keep him in
friend. Prosper relates in his chronicle (A. D. 437) chains, and put him to death if matters did not
that Possidius, along vith Novatus and Severianus, turn out well. Plutarch (Sull. 9) says that this
strenuously resisted the efforts of Genseric to pro- occurred when SuLlla was marching upon Rome, in
pagate the doctrines of Arianism, and it is gene- B. c. 88; whereas Cicero (de Div. i. 33) and Valerius
rally believed, that having been expelled from Maximus (i. 6. ~ 4) relate that it happened before
Africa, after the capture of Carthage (A. D. 439), the battle in which Sulla defeated the Samnites.
lie made his way to Italy, and there died. 4. M. POSTUMIus, quaestor of Verres in his
Two tracts by Possidius are still'extant. government of Sicily, B. c. 73. (Cic. Verr. ii. 18.)
1. Vita Augyustini. 2. IndiculLs Scriptoru i4 Au- 5. CN. POSTUMIUS, was one of the supporters
gustini. These are attached to all the best editions (subscriptores) of Ser. Sulpicius in his prosecution
of Augustine. The best edition of the Vita, in a of Murena for bribery in B. c. 63. He had been
separate form, is that of Salinas, 8vo. Rom. 1731, a candidate for the praetorship in the same year.
and Aug. Vindel. 1768; of the Indiculus, that (Cic. pro Alllr. 26, 27, 33.)
published at Venice, 8vo. 1735. [WT. R.] 6. T. POSTUmiUS, an orator mentioned by Cicero
POSSIS (IIo'ais), a Greek writer, mentioned with praise (Brut. 77), may perhaps have been the
only by Athenaeus, who cites two of his works, same person as the following.
namely, the third book of his history of the 7. POSTUMIUS, a friend of Cicero, belonged to
Amazons ('Axa(govis, vii. p. 296, d.), and the third the Pompeian party, and on the breaking out of the
book of his history of Magnesia (Macyr7cLda, xii. civil war, in B. c. 49, was appointed by the senate
p. 533, d.). to succeed Furfanius Postumus in Sicily; but as he
POSTVERTA or POSTVORTA, is properly refused to go to the province without Cato, Fannius
a surname of Carmenta, describing her as turning was sent in his stead. (Cic. ad Alt. vii. 15. ~ 2.)
backward and looking at the past, which she re- Cicero mentions him as one of his fiiends in B. C.
vealed to poets and other mortals. In like manner 46 (ad Fate. vi. 12. ~ 2, xiii. 69). He speaks of
the prophetic power with which she looked into him again as one of the procuratores of the games
the future, is indicated by the surnames Antevorta, of Octavius in B. C. 44 (ad Att. xv. 2. ~ 3).
Prorsa (i. e. Proversa), and Porrima. Poets, how- 8. POSTuMIUS, a legate of Caesar, whom he
ever, have personified these attributes of Carmenta, sent over from Greece to Italy in B.C. 48, to
and thus describe them as the companions of the hasten the passage of his troops. (Appian, B. C.
goddess. (Ov. Fast. i. 633; Macrob. Sat. i. 7; ii. 58.)
Gellius, xvi. 16; Serv. ad Aen. viii. 339.) [L. S.] 9. P. POSTUMIuS, a friend of M. Marcellus,
POSTU'MIA. 1. A Vestal virgin, accused of who was murdered at Athens in B.c. 45. (Servius,
incest in B. C. 419, in consequence of the elegance ap. Cic. ad Farm. iv. 12. ~ 2.)
of her dress and the freedom of her remarks, but 1 0. Q. POSTUMvus, a Roman senator, was torn
acquitted, with an admonition to be more careful to pieces by order of Antony, because he meditated
in her conduct for the future. (Liv. iv. 44.) deserting to Augustus in B.C. 31. (Dion Cass.
2. The wife of Ser. Sulpicius, was a busy in- 1. 13.)
triguing woman, and did not bear a good character. POSTU'MIUS, architect. [POLLO.]
She is said to have been one of the mistresses of POSTUMULE'NUS, is only known as a friend
Julius Caesar (Suet. Jul. 50), and Cicero suspected of Trebianus or Trebonius (Cic. ad Faom. vi. 10).
that it was her charms which drew his legatus PO'STUMUS, which signifies a person born
Polnptinus from Cilicia to Rome. (Cic. ad Att. after the death of his father, was originally a praev. 21. ~ 9.) Her name frequently occurs in nomen (Varr. L. L. v. 60, ed. Muller), but was
Cicero's correspondence at the time of the civil also used as a cognomen, of which several instances
wars (ad Farm. iv. 2, ad Att. x. 3. A, x. 14, xii. occur in the persons mentioned below.
11, &c.). PO'STUMUS, a Roman, to whom Horace adPOSTU'MIA, PO'NTIA. [PONTIA, No. 2.] dresses one of his odes (ii. 14). Nothing is known
POSTU'MIA GENS, patrician, was one of of him, but he may have been the same person as
the most ancient patrician gentes at Rome, and the Postumus to whom Propertius addresses one of
frequently held the highest offices of the state, his elegies (iii. 12).
from the banishment of the kings to the downfal PO'STUMUS, stands second on the list of the
of the republic. The most distinguished family in thirty tyrants enumerated by Trebellius Pollio [see
the gens was that of ALBUS or ALBINUS, but we AUREOLUS]. His full name was 1I. CGtssianus,
also find at the commencement of the republic dis- Latinius Postunzus. Of humble origin, he owed his
tinguished families of the names of MEGELLUS advancement to merit, was nominated by Valerian,
and TUBERTUS. The first of the Postumii, who who entertained the strongest conviction of his
obtained the consulship, was P. Postumius Tu- worth, governor of Gaul, and was entrusted spebertus, in B. C. 503, only six years after the expul- cially with the defence of the Rhenish frontier.
sion of the kings. REGILLENSIS is properly an By his aid Gallienus was enabled to repulse for
agnomen of the ALBINI, and accordingly persons some years the attacks of the barbarians; but on
with this surnameare given under ALBINUS. In setting out for Illyria (A. D. 257), in order to quell