Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 1.djvu/108

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ALBINOVANUS.
ALBINUS.

nymic from Alastor, and given by Homer (Hom. Il. 20.463) to Tros, who was probably a son of the Lycian Alastor mentioned above. [L. S.]

ALATHE'US, called ODOTHAEUS by Claudian, became with Saphrax, in A. D. 376, on the death of Vithimir, the guardian of Vithericus, the young king of the Greuthungi, the chief tribe of the Ostrogoths. Alatheus and Saphrax led their people across the Danube in this year, and uniting their forces with those of the Visigoths under Fritigern, took part against the Romans in the battle of Hadrianople, A. D. 378, in which the emperor Valens was defeated and killed. After plundering the surrounding country, Alatheus and Saphrax eventually recrossed the Danube, but appeared again on its banks in 386, with the intention of invading the Roman provinces again. They were, however, repulsed, and Alatheus was slain. (Amm. Marc. 31.3, &c.; Jornand. de Reb. Get. 26, 27; Claudian, de IV Cons. Honor. 626; Zosimus, 4.39.)

ALBA SI'LVIUS, one of the mythical kings of Alba, said to have been the son of Latinus, and the father of Atys, according to Livy, and of Capetus, according to Dionysius. He reigned thirty-nine years. (Liv. 1.3; Dionys. A. R. 1.71.)

A'LBIA GENS. No persons of this gens obtained any offices in the state till the first century B. C. They all bore the cognomen CARRINAS.

L. ALBI'NIUS. 1. One of the tribunes of the plebs, at the first institution of the office, B. C. 494. (Liv. 2.33.) Asconius calls him L. Albinius C. F. Paterculus. (In Cic. Cornel. p. 76, ed. Orelli.)

2. A plebeian, who was conveying his wife and children in a cart out of the city, after the defeat on the Alia, B. C. 390, and overtook on the Janiculus, the priests and vestals carrying the sacred things: he made his family alight and took as many as he was able to Caere. (Liv. 5.40; V. Max. 1.1.10.) The consular tribune in B. C. 379, whom Livy (6.30) calls M. Albinius, is probably the same person as the above. (Comp. Niebuhr, Hist. of Rome, ii. n. 1201.)

ALBINOVA'NUS, C. PEDO, a friend and contemporary of Ovid, to whom the latter addresses one of his Epistles from Pontus. (4.10.) He is classed by Quintilian (10.1) among the epic poets; Ovid speaks of his poem on the exploits of Theseus, and calls him sidereus Pedo, on account of the sublimity of his style. (Ex. Pont. 4.16. 6. He is supposed to have written an epic poem on the exploits of Germanicus, the son of Drusus, of which twenty-three lines are preserved in the Suasoria of Seneca. (lib. i.) This fragment is usually entitled " De Navigatione Germanici per Oceanum Septentrionalem," and describes the voyage of Germanicus through the Amisia (Ems) into the northern ocean, A. D. 16. (Comp. Tac. Ann. 2.23.) It would seem from Martial (5.5), that Albinovanus was also a writer of epigrams. L. Seneca was acquainted with him, and calls him fabulator elegantissimus. (Ep. 122.) Three Latin elegies are attributed to Albinovanus, but without any sufficient authority : namely,-- 1. "Ad Liviam Aug. de Morte Drusi," which is ascribed to Ovid by many, and has been published separately by Bremer, Helmst. 1775. 2. "In Obitum Maecenatis." 3. "De Verbis Maecenatis moribundi." (Wernsdorf, Poetae Latini Minores, iii. pp. 121, &c., 155, &c.)

The fragment of Albinovanus on the voyage of Germanicus, has been published by H. Stephens, Fragm. Poet., p. 416, Pitboeus, Epigram. et poem. vet., p. 239, Burmann, Anth. Lat. ii. ep. 121, Wernsdorf, Poet. Lat. Min. IV. i. p. 229, &c. All that has been ascribed to Albinovanus was published at Amsterdam, 1703, with the notes of J. Scaliger and others. The last edition is by Meinecke, which contains the text, and a German translation in verse, Quedlinburg, 1819.

ALBINOVA'NUS, P. TU'LLIUS, belonged to the party of Marius in the first civil war, and was one of the twelve who were declared enemies of the state in B. C. 87. He thereupon fled to Hiempsal in Numidia. After the defeat of Carbo and Norbanus in B. C. 81, he obtained the pardon of Sulla by treacherously putting to death many of the principal officers of Norbanus, whom he had invited to a banquet. Ariminium in consequence revolted to Sulla, whence the Pseudo-Asconius (in Cic. Verr. p. 168, ed. Orelli) speaks of Albinovanus betraying it. (Appian, App. BC 1.60, 62, 91; Florus, 3.21.7.)

ALBI'NUS or ALBUS, the name of the principal family of the patrician Postumia gens. The original name was Albus, as appears from the Fasti, which was afterwards lengthened into Albinus. We find in proper names in Latin, derivatives in anus, enus, and inns, used without any additional meaning, in the same sense as the simple forms. (Comp. Niebuhr, Hist. of Rome, i. n. 219.)

1. A. Postumius Albus Regillensis, P. F., was, according to Livy, dictator B. C. 498, when he conquered the Latins in the great battle near lake Regillus. Roman story related that Castor and Pollux were seen fighting in this battle on the side of the Romans, whence the dictator afterwards dedicated a temple to Castor and Pollux in the forum. He was consul B. C. 496, in which year some of the annals, according to Livy, placed the battle of the lake Regillus; and it is to this year that Dionysius assigns it. (Liv. 2.19, 20, 21 ; Dionys. A. R. 6.2, &c.; V. Max. 1.8.1; Cic. de Nat. Deor. 2.2, 3.5.) The surname Regillensis is usually supposed to have been derived from this battle; but Niebuhr thinks that it was taken from a place of residence, just as the Claudii bore the same name, and that the later annalists only spoke of Postumius as commander in consequence of the name. Livy (30.45) states expressly, that Scipio Africanus was the first Roman who obtained a surname from his conquests. (Niebuhr, Hist. of Rome, i. p. 556.) Many of the coins of the Albini commemorate this victory of their ancestor, as in the one annexed. On one side the head of Diana is represented with the letters ROMA underneath, which are partly effaced, and on the reverse are three horsemen trampling on a foot-soldier.

2. SP. POSTUMIUS ALBUS REGILLENSIS, A. F. P. N., apparently, according to the Fasti, the son of the preceding, (though it must be observed, that in these early times no dependance can be placed