Publius Sempronius Tuditanus
Publius Sempronius C.f. Tuditanus (fl. 3rd century BC) was a
Tuditanus at Cannae
The consul Lucius Aemilius Paullus (who died at Cannae) had left a reserve camp of about 10,000 men on the other bank. These men who did not participate in the battle had three choices after the disastrous battle: surrender to Hannibal, attempt to break through the Carthaginian lines and escape, or stand their ground and die fighting. The smaller of the two camps was besieged by the Carthaginians.
One of the few Roman officers who survived that fatal day, Publius Sempronius C.f. Tuditanus, along with his fellow tribune
This episode recorded by Livy goes back via Lucius Coelius Antipater to the Roman poet Ennius, but it is not told by Polybius, who retells in the completely preserved third book of his historical work a reliable and detailed report of the events of the Second Punic War in the years 219 to 216 BC. Therefore there are doubts about the historicity of this episode.[2]
Tuditanus in politics
Two years afterwards (214 BC) Tuditanus was elected
He was elected censor in 209 BC with
It was Tuditanus who had the right of choosing the new
In 205 BC, he was sent into Greece with the title of proconsul at the head of a military and naval force, for the purpose of opposing Philip V of Macedon. Instead, he concluded a preliminary treaty with Philip, the "Treaty of Phoenice", which was readily ratified by the Romans, who were anxious to give their undivided attention to the war in Africa.
In 204 BC, Tuditanus was elected
In 200 BC, Tuditanus was one of the three ambassadors sent to Greece and to
Family
Tuditanus, descended from a prominent branch of the
It is not clear how he is related to the other two or three prominent Tuditani:
- M. Sempronius Tuditanus, one of the officers of Scipio at the capture of New Carthage in Spain. (Livy xxvi. 48.). Possibly the same man as the consul 185 BC
- C. Sempronius Tuditanus, plebeian aedile 198 BC and praetor 197 BC, when he obtained Nearer Spain as his province. He was defeated by the Spaniards with great loss, and died shortly afterwards in consequence of a wound which he had received in the battle. He was pontifex at the time of his death.[7]
- M. Sempronius M.f. C.n. Tuditanus (d. 174 BC Rome), tribune of the plebs 193 BC, proposed and carried a plebiscitum, which enacted that the law about money lent should be the same for the Socii and the Latini as for the Roman citizens.[8] He was praetor 189 BC, when he obtained Sicily as his province, and consul 185 BC with Ap. Claudius Pulcher. In his consulship he carried on war, in Liguria, and defeated the Apuani, while his colleague was equally successful against the Ingauni. Tuditanus was an unsuccessful candidate for the consulship in 184 BC (won by Cato and Flaccus), but was elected one of the pontifices in the following year. He was carried off by the great pestilence which devastated Rome
The Sempronia, who was mother of Decimus Junius Brutus Albinus (one of Caesar's generals and assassins), may have been descended from any one of these men.
See also
- Sempronia gens
- List of Roman Republican consuls
- List of Roman censors
Notes
- ^ Livy xxii. 50, 60; in some details different Frontinus, strategemata 4.5.7 and Appian, Hannibalica 26.
- ^ Article Sempronius [I 24]. In: Der Neue Pauly. vol. 11, col. 396.
- ^ Livy 24.43.6; 24.44.3; 24.47.14; 25.3.5; 26.1.5; judgement about Livy's report: Article Sempronius [I 24]. In: Der Neue Pauly. vol. 11, col. 396.
- ^ Livy 29.38, 30.19
- ^ Livy xxxiv, 53
- ^ Livy xxiv. 43, 44, 47, xxv. 3, xxvi. 1, xxvii. 11, 38, xxix. 11, 12; Cicero, Brutus 15, de Senect. 4; Livy xxix. 13, 36, xxxi. 2.
- ^ Livy xxxii. 27, 28, xxxiii. 25,42; Appian, Hisp. 39.
- ^ Dict. of Antiq. s. v. Lex Sempronia de Fenore.
Sources
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Smith, William, ed. (1870). "Tuditanus (2)". Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology. Vol. 3. p. 1181.
- Livy. History of Rome.