Born in Roman Africa, Albinus became a senator in the last years of the reign of the emperor Marcus Aurelius. Soon after 180 Albinus distinguished himself in a campaign somewhere north of Dacia (now in Romania). He was consul in the late 180s and commanded armies on the Rhine and (about 191) in Britain.

Early in 193, after the murder of Marcus Aurelius's son, Commodus, and his successor Pertinax (Pertinax, Publius Helvius), the guards in Rome proclaimed Marcus Didius Julianus (Didius Severus Julianus, Marcus) emperor; evidence suggests that Albinus may have encouraged Didius. The armies of the Danube and of Syria, however, proclaimed imperial power for their respective commanders, Severus and Niger. Didius was murdered, and Severus, entering Rome as emperor, concluded an agreement that acknowledged Albinus as caesar and heir. After Severus defeated Niger and was victorious in the First Parthian War, he proclaimed his eldest son caesar and heir (AD 195). A rupture between the two remaining rivals was inevitable. In 197 Albinus, now proclaimed emperor by his troops, entered Gaul and advanced toward Rome with the army of Britain. Severus marched through southern Germany and defeated and killed Albinus in a two-day battle that took place outside Lugdunum (modern Lyons, France).