A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology

9. Sp.PostumiusAlbinus, was consul B. C. 334, and invaded, with his colleague T. Veturius Calvinus, the country of the Sidicini; but, on account of the great forces which the enemy had collected, and the report that the Samnites were coming to their assistance, a dictator was appointed. (Liv. 8.16, 17.) He was censor in 332 and magister equitum in 327, when M. Claudius Marcellus was appointed dictator to hold the comitia. (8.17, 23.) In 321, he was consul a second time with T. Veturius Calvinus, and marched against the Samnites, but was defeated near Caudium, and obliged to surrender with his whole army, who were sent under the yoke. As the price of his deliverance and that of the army, he and his colleague and the other commanders swore, in the name of the republic, to a humiliating peace. The consuls, on their return to Rome, laid down their office after appointing a dictator; and the senate, on the advice of Postumius, resolved that all persons who had sworn to the peace should be given up to the Samnites. Postumius, with the other prisoners, accordingly went to the Samnites, but they refused to accept them. (Liv. 9.1_10 ; Appian, de Reb. Samn. 2-6; Cic. de Off. 3.30, Cato, 12.)