person
Gaius Rabirius Postumus
Postumus
also: Postumus, Postumi, C. Curtius Postumus, Gaius Rabirius Postumus
Roman financier (eques), son of the publican C. Curtius and adopted by his maternal uncle C. Rabirius; a banker on a vast scale entangled in the Egyptian loans to Ptolemy Auletes and defended by Cicero in the Pro Rabirio Postumo (54 BC). Patron of the freedman C. Curtius Mithres and a close friend of Cicero (Fam. 13.69).
Reading notes
- Ad Familiares 13.69 §1 the freedman of my close friend Postumus
Postumus is C. Rabirius Postumus, the great financier (son of the publican C. Curtius, adopted by C. Rabirius), defended by Cicero in 54 BC. His freedman Mithres took the nomen Curtius from the patron's family; a freedman customarily retained close ties of duty (obsequium) to his former master.
- For Gaius Rabirius Postumus §11 one Roman knight
Postumus was an eques (Roman knight), of the financier class, not a senator; Cicero stresses that the extortion law binds senatorial magistrates and their staff, not a private equestrian creditor.