Postumus Cominius Auruncus

Summary

Postumus Cominius Auruncus was a two-time consul of the early Roman Republic.

Postumus Cominius Auruncus
Consul of the Roman Republic
In office
[1] 1 September 501 BC – 29 August 500 BC
Serving with Titus Larcius
Preceded byOpiter Verginius Tricostus (consul 502 BC), Spurius Cassius Vecellinus
Succeeded byServius Sulpicius Camerinus Cornutus
In office
[1] 1 September 493 BC – 29 August 492 BC
Preceded byAulus Verginius Tricostus Caeliomontanus, Titus Veturius Geminus Cicurinus (consul 494 BC)
Succeeded byTitus Geganius Macerinus, Publius Minucius Augurinus
Personal details
BornUnknown
Ancient Rome
Died486 BC
Ancient Rome

In 501 BC, Cominius was consul with Titus Larcius, who Livy says was appointed as the first dictator of Rome.[2][3] Other sources indicate the beginnings of hostilities with the Latins and a conspiracy among slaves during their term.[4][5][3]

As the consuls of 493 BC, Cominius and Spurius Cassius Vecellinus were elected towards the end of the First secessio plebis in 494 BC.[6] They also conducted a census.[7][8]

Cominius achieved a military victory against the Volsci. He initially defeated a force from the town of Antium, then took the towns of Longula (to the north of Antium) and Pollusca. He laid siege to the town of Corioli and despite being attacked by a second force of Volsci from Antium, he achieved victory through the distinguished actions of Gaius Marcius Coriolanus, and captured Corioli.[9][10][11][12][13]

In 488, he was among the envoys (legati), all of consular rank, sent to Coriolanus.[14][15]

A puzzling and textually incomplete passage in Festus[16][17] lists Cominius among several men who were burned publicly near the Circus Maximus in 486 BC. Valerius Maximus says that a tribune of the plebs burned nine colleagues for conspiring with Spurius Cassius Vecellinus, a consul in this year who plotted to make himself king.[18][19] Since the plebeian tribunes numbered ten only much later, and since the listed names indicate that the men were of consular rank and patrician status, this incident during the Volscian Wars remains mysterious.[20]

See also edit

References edit

  1. ^ a b Ogilvie, Robert Maxwell (1965). Commentary on Livy, books 1–5. Oxford: Clarendon Press. pp. 404, 405.
  2. ^ Livy 2.18.2–8
  3. ^ a b Broughton 1986, p. 9.
  4. ^ Dionysius of Halicarnassus 5.50.1–51.3
  5. ^ Zonaras 7.13
  6. ^ Livy, Ab urbe condita, 2.33
  7. ^ Dionysius 6.96.1
  8. ^ Broughton 1986, pp. 14–15.
  9. ^ Livy 2.33.4–9
  10. ^ Dionysius 6.91.1–94.2
  11. ^ Valerius Maximus 4.3.4
  12. ^ Plutarch, Coriolanus 8.1–11.1
  13. ^ Broughton 1986, p. 15.
  14. ^ Dionysius 8.22.4–5
  15. ^ Broughton 1986, p. 19.
  16. ^ Festus, 180 in the edition of Lindsay
  17. ^ Broughton 1986, p. 21.
  18. ^ Valerius Maximus 6.3.2
  19. ^ Broughton 1986, pp. 20–21.
  20. ^ Broughton 1986, p. 21, citing also Cassius Dio frg. 22 and Zonaras 7.17..
  • Broughton, T.R.S. (1986) [1951]. The Magistrates of the Roman Republic. Vol. 1. American Philological Association.
Political offices
Preceded by Consul of the Roman Republic
with Titus Lartius Flavus
501 BC
Succeeded by
Preceded by Consul of the Roman Republic
with Spurius Cassius Vecellinus
493 BC
Succeeded by