Postumus the Younger

In the Historia Augusta, Postumus the Younger (Latin: Postumus Iūnior) figures as one of the so-called Thirty Tyrants who usurped power against the Roman Emperor Gallienus. According to the pseudo-historical list of 'Thirty Tyrants', the Emperor of the Gallic Empire Postumus had a son, also called Postumus, whom he nominated to be first caesar, and later even augustus and co-ruler. Postumus the Younger would have been killed together with his father in 268, during the rebellion of Laelianus (called Lollianus in the Historia).[1]

Postumus the Younger from Guillaume Rouillé's Promptuarii Iconum Insigniorum

The historian J. F. Drinkwater dismisses the Historia Augusta's reference to Postumus the Younger as a "fiction".[2] There are no references to any son of Postumus on coins or inscriptions from the period.

The author(s) of the Historia asserts that Postumus the Younger was a skilled rhetor, and that his Controversiae were included among Quintilian's Declamationes.[1]

References

Historia Augusta (authorship disputed), Tyranni Triginta 4
J. F. Drinkwater (1987). The Gallic Empire: Separatism and continuity in the north-western provinces of the Roman Empire, A.D. 260–274, Franz Steiner Verlag Wiesbaden GMBH, Stuttgart, ISBN 3-515-04806-5, p. 65.

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[HA-1] Historia Augusta (authorship disputed), Tyranni Triginta 4

[2] J. F. Drinkwater (1987). The Gallic Empire: Separatism and continuity in the north-western provinces of the Roman Empire, A.D. 260–274, Franz Steiner Verlag Wiesbaden GMBH, Stuttgart, ISBN 3-515-04806-5, p. 65.