What is "postumus"

Marcus Cassianius Latinius Postumus was a Roman commander of provincial origin who ruled as emperor in the west. The Roman army in Gaul threw off its allegiance to Gallienus around the year 260, and Postumus assumed the title and powers of emperor in the provinces of Gaul, Germania, Britannia and Hispania, thereby founding what scholars have dubbed the Gallic Empire. He ruled for the better part of ten years before he was murdered by his own troops.

Postumus is a Latin praenomen, or personal name, which was most common during the early centuries of the Roman Republic. It gave rise to the patronymic gens Postumia, and later became a common cognomen, or surname. The feminine form is Postuma. The name was not regularly abbreviated, but is sometimes found as Pos. or Post.

Postumus was used by both patrician and plebeian gentes, including the Aebutii, Antistii, Cominii, Livii, Mimesii, Plautii, Sempronii, Sulpicii, and Veturii; and naturally it must once have been used by the ancestors of gens Postumia. Other gentes which later used it as a cognomen may originally have used it as a praenomen. Because it was not a common name, there are few examples of the feminine form, but Marcus Terentius Varro listed it together with other archaic praenomina that were no longer in general use by the 1st century BC, and Plutarchus mentions that it was given to the youngest daughter of the dictator Lucius Cornelius Sulla, who lived during Varro's time.

Postumus (Marcus Cassianius Latinius Postumus, died 269) was a Roman usurper and founder of the Gallic Empire.

Postumus may also refer to:

• Agrippa Postumus (12 BC – 14 AD), son of Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa
• Postumus Junior (died 268), alleged son of the Gallic emperor
• Postumus (praenomen), Roman praenomen