
Albinius (died 73 BC) was a member of the Roman Senate during the 1st century BC.
Biography[]
Albinius was a former legatus in the army of the Roman Republic, rising to fame by commanding Roman troops during campaigns in Greece; in one campaign of his, he killed the family of Athenian man Arkadios and sold him into slavery to become a gladiator. Albinius would become a very wealthy senator and Capua patrician, and his daughter Ilithyia Albinia married the Roman general Gaius Claudius Glaber. Albinius saw to it that Glaber was given command of a legion in Thrace in 73 BC, and he grew furious at Glaber's failure to defeat the Getae due to a Thracian mutiny. He was amazed when Glaber's captured Thracian warrior Spartacus killed Arkadios and three other gladiators during what was supposed to be an arena execution in Capua, and he decided to have Spartacus spared and sold into slavery under Lentulus Batiatus. He was later forced to deal with Spartacus' uprising, and he grew angry at his son-in-law for the humiliation that he had caused to the Albinii, and Albinius attempted to secure his daughter's divorce from him, hoping that she would remarry to Publius Varinius. However, these plans were interrupted when the Capua arena was assaulted by Spartacus' rebels, who set fire to the amphitheatre. Albinius was trapped under falling debris, and Glaber smashed Albinius' head with a large plank of wood, preventing him from overseeing his daughter's divorce.