Gens Sempronia

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

You have new messages (last change).

Gens Sempronia (female) or Sempronius (male), was one of the plebs gens of ancient Rome. The plebeian gens is probably unrelated to the patrician Sempronii who provided several early Roman consuls.[1]

Although the family were not of patrician stock, they were one of the wealthiest families[citation needed] and considered one of the most well connected and important political families during the Roman Republic. The family rose to the zenith of power between 268 BC and 121 BC, providing several consuls, censors, praetors, and tribunes of the plebs.

The gens Sempronia was divided into several branches, of which the most significant politically are

  • the Sempronii Gracchae, which branch provided Romans with three consuls (holding five consulships) and a censor, as well as distinguished pair of brother-tribunes, the Brothers Gracchi.
  • the Sempronii Tuditani, which branch provided Romans with two consuls, of whom the most distinguished was Publius Sempronius Tuditanus, elected censor 209 BC before becoming consul, who rallied 600 Romans trapped in their camp after Cannae and broke them out from encirclement.[2]
  • the Sempronii Sophi, which branch provided Romans with Publius Sempronius Sophus, the first plebeian consul from the gens Sempronia. Sophus was more famous, or notorious, for divorcing his wife for attending the Roman games without his knowledge.[3]

Of these three major branches (stirps), the most influential were the Sempronii Gracchae, if only for the effects of the Brothers Gracchi on Roman politics. Various members of this stirps or branch include:

  • Tiberius Sempronius Tib. f. Gracchus, Roman consul in 238 BC, first member of the Gracchae branch to become consul, and ancestor of all subsequent members.
  • Tiberius Sempronius Tib. f. Tib. n. Gracchus, consul 215 BC and 213 BC (killed in ambush 212 BC), twice elected consul, and known as an effective general of volunteer slave troops after the defeat at Cannae. Son of the first Tiberius Sempronius Gracchus.
  • Tiberius Sempronius P.f. Tib. n. Gracchus or Tiberius Gracchus Major (d. 154 BC, politician and military commander; he was nephew of the consul in the Second Punic War and father of two reformist politicians.
  • Tiberius Sempronius Gracchus or Tiberius Gracchus (kd. 133 BC), son to the above and politician
  • Gaius Sempronius Gracchus or Gaius Gracchus (suicided 121 BC), a politician and son of Tiberius Gracchus Major and brother to Tiberius Gracchus
  • Sempronia Gracchae, the women of the Sempronia gens, notably the daughter of Tiberius Gracchus Major (wife of Scipio Aemilianus) and her niece the daughter of Gaius Gracchus (mother of Fulvia).

References

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org../../../g/e/n/Gens_Sempronia_5d9b.html"