Difference between Postremo and Postea?

Question

Is there a difference between postremo and postea which both seem to mean afterwards?

I did look in Doderlein's Handbook and he doesn't cover these two words.

Answer 1

Postremo actually means "at last" or "finally." It is more synonymous with tandem. (Cf. the difference between at last and finally in English.) It's an alternate form of postumus. You can remember this by noticing the -em- superlative infix; the comparative is posterior.

Postea is the word that means 'afterwards.' You can remember that by thinking of it as post + ea ('after these things').