Sempronia
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Sempronia refers either to the female form of the prominent Sempronius family, called the gens Sempronia, or to the women of that family. The family was said to be one of the wealthiest, well-connected and influential political families during the Roman Republic.
The gens Sempronia was a plebeian family of consular rank in ancient Rome that produced several consuls and censors from 304 BC to 129 BC. One branch, the Sempronii Gracchae, were particularly prominent, making two important marriages into the wealthy and prominent Cornelii Scipiones (Scipios) by 150 BC.
The women of the family were called Sempronia, and later sometimes distinguished as Sempronia Gracchae. These women called Sempronia Gracchae were from the Gracchi branch of the Sempronia gens. Gracchus was the male name, and Gracchae was the female name. Likewise, the women from the Tuditanus branch of the family were called Sempronia Tuditani. The two most famous Sempronias are from the Gracchi branch, and are known to most students of Roman history simply as Sempronia.
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[edit] Sempronia (fl. 101 BC), daughter of Tiberius Gracchus Major and Cornelia Africana
For the full article, see Sempronia (sister of the Gracchi).
Sempronia Gracchae (b circa 170 BC, living 101 BC), was a Roman noblewoman living in the Middle and Late Roman Republic, who was most famous as the sister of the ill-fated Tiberius Gracchus (d. 133 BC) and Gaius Gracchus (d. 121 BC), and the wife of a Roman general Scipio Aemilianus. She was alleged to have connived at her husband's sudden death while in good health, and thus have avenged her brother's death. She was also apparently the last surviving grandchild of Scipio Africanus but the only one who had no issue.
[edit] Sempronia (d. 63 BC), daughter to Gaius Gracchus and Licinia Crassa
Sempronia Gracchae (about 123 BC - 63 BC) was the only daughter to Roman tribune Gaius Gracchus and Licinia Crassa. Her maternal grandparents were the consul of 131 BC, Publius Licinius Crassus, and Claudia. Her paternal grandparents were Roman consul and censor Tiberius Gracchus Major and Cornelia Africana (second daughter of Roman general Scipio Africanus), and her maternal great-uncle was the Roman general Lucius Aemilius Paulus Macedonicus. She allegedly had a brother, but he probably died young since she became her grandmother's heiress. Sempronia was born and raised in Rome.
Sempronia was very young when her father was murdered and her parents's property seized illegally, so she was raised by her mother. Her paternal grandmother Cornelia Africana died some months later, making the little Sempronia her sole heiress by special decree of the Senate (as an exemption to the lex Voconia).
She was married to Marcus Fulvius Flaccus Bambalio, apparently the only surviving son of Marcus Fulvius Flaccus (consul 125 BC), her father's greatest supporter. Flaccus received the nickname Bambalio, due to his hesitancy in speech. He was a man of consular rank from Tusculum, Italy, whose family was of plebs status (like her family); his father Marcus Fulvius Flaccus (consul 125 BC) had died in 121 BC with two of his sons, and his great-grandfather had been the consul and censor Quintus Fulvius Flaccus. After many years of childlessness, Sempronia bore him a daughter and only child, Fulvia Flacca Bambula.
Sempronia was the heiress to the wealthy Gracchi estate, and to the property of her paternal grandmother, a daughter of Scipio Africanus. When Sempronia died in 63 BC, Fulvia would inherit the Gracchi estate. Her daughter would marry the Roman politicians Publius Clodius Pulcher, Gaius Scribonius Curio and Mark Antony, all of them considered demagogues. Marcus Fulvius Flaccus Bambalio, her father, was still alive when Fulvia was married to Publius Clodius Pulcher. Sempronia's grandchildren included Clodia Pulchra (emperor Augustus' first wife), and two sons of Mark Antony - Marcus Antonius Antyllus, and Iullus Antonius.
[edit] Sempronia Tuditani, wife of Decimus Junius Brutus
Sempronia Gracchae was a wife of Decimus Junius Brutus, consul of 77 BC. Sempronia was a distinguished, beautiful, accomplished, and passionate woman, who learned Ancient Greek and Latin. She could sing, play the lyre and dance. The historian Sallust states she was extremely fortunate in life, marriage, and children, yet had a profligate character. A woman like Sempronia shows a "new woman" in Rome, with interests, tastes and abilities that would become common in future Roman women. Sempronia and her ilk were a contrast to Roman women like Cornelia Africana and their values from the earlier Roman Republican Period. She was involved in the Catiline Conspiracy, without the knowledge and consent of her husband. Their son was the assassin Decimus Junius Brutus Albinus (d. 41 BC).
She may be the same Sempronia who, according to Asconius, was the woman who gave her testimony at the trial of Titus Annius Milo in 52 BC. This Sempronia was the daughter of Tuditanus, and the mother of P. Clodius. (The latter makes no sense, unless Sempronia Tuditani is confused with the deceased Sempronia who was Fulvia's mother).
The novelist Colleen McCullough gives this woman's name as Sempronia Tuditani, implying that she was of a different branch from the Gracchae. Sempronia Tuditani is mentioned, but does not appear, in the novel The October Horse (novel).
[edit] References
- Roots Web
- Sempronia-Sallu
- Ancient Library 3110
- Ancient Library 1890
- Ancient Library 1406
- Sallust, De coniuratione Catilinae xxv
- Plutarch, Makers of Rome, Tiberius Gracchus.
