Spurius Postumius Albinus Caudinus[1] was a politician of Ancient Rome, of patrician rank, of the 4th century BC.
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, Publius Cornelius Rufinus.
Postumius was defeated at the Battle of the Caudine Forks, near Caudium, and obliged to surrender with his whole army, who were sent "under the yoke", a symbolic gesture of submission to the enemy.
Upon returning to Rome, the consuls, because of their disgrace, laid down their office and their senatorship, and proposed that all persons who had sworn to the peace (that is, themselves) should be stripped and bound and handed over to the Samnites by the Fetiales.
The proposal was accepted, and Postumius and the other prisoners were brought to the Samnites by the fetialis Aulus Cornelius Arvina, but Gaius Pontius refused to accept their surrender, on the grounds that it was being used as an excuse to annul the treaty (unfavorable to Rome) that had concluded the Battle of the Caudine Forks.