Gaius Sempronius Tuditanus was a politician and historian of the

Roman Republic The Roman Republic ( ) was the era of Ancient Rome, classical Roman civilisation beginning with Overthrow of the Roman monarchy, the overthrow of the Roman Kingdom (traditionally dated to 509 BC) and ending in 27 BC with the establis ...

. He was

consul Consul (abbrev. ''cos.''; Latin plural ''consules'') was the title of one of the two chief magistrates of the Roman Republic, and subsequently also an important title under the Roman Empire. The title was used in other European city-states thro ...

in 129 BC.

Biography

Early life

Gaius Sempronius Tuditanus was a member of the

plebeian In ancient Rome, the plebeians or plebs were the general body of free Roman citizens who were not patricians, as determined by the census, or in other words "commoners". Both classes were hereditary. Etymology The precise origins of the gro ...

gens Sempronia. His father had the same name and was

senator A senate is a deliberative assembly, often the upper house or Legislative chamber, chamber of a bicameral legislature. The name comes from the Ancient Rome, ancient Roman Senate (Latin: ''Senatus''), so-called as an assembly of the senior ...

and in 146 BC member of a commission of ten men who had to reorganize the political conditions in

Greece Greece, officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. Located on the southern tip of the Balkan peninsula, it shares land borders with Albania to the northwest, North Macedonia and Bulgaria to the north, and Turkey to th ...

. The Roman orator and politician

Cicero Marcus Tullius Cicero ( ; ; 3 January 106 BC – 7 December 43 BC) was a Roman statesman, lawyer, scholar, philosopher, orator, writer and Academic skeptic, who tried to uphold optimate principles during the political crises tha ...

confused several times the younger Tuditanus with his father and was informed of his mistake by his friend

Titus Pomponius Atticus Titus Pomponius Atticus (November 110 BC – 31 March 32 BC; later named Quintus Caecilius Pomponianus Atticus) was a Roman editor, banker, and patron of letters, best known for his correspondence and close friendship with prominent Roman ...

in May 45 BC.

Career

Probably the younger Tuditanus is first attested in 146 BC as officer of

Lucius Mummius Achaicus Lucius Mummius (2nd century BC) was a Roman Republic, Roman statesman and general. He was consul in the year 146 BC along with Gnaeus Cornelius Lentulus (consul 146 BC), Gnaeus Cornelius Lentulus. Mummius was the first of his family to rise to ...

in his war in Greece. In 145 BC Tuditanus was

Quaestor A quaestor ( , ; ; "investigator") was a public official in ancient Rome. There were various types of quaestors, with the title used to describe greatly different offices at different times. In the Roman Republic, quaestors were elected officia ...

. Probably because he was an adherent of the Scipiones he could pass the curule offices within the legally allowed periods without any problems. In 132 BC he was

Praetor ''Praetor'' ( , ), also ''pretor'', was the title granted by the government of ancient Rome to a man acting in one of two official capacities: (i) the commander of an army, and (ii) as an elected ''magistratus'' (magistrate), assigned to disch ...

. Tuditanus achieved the peak of his career in 129 BC when he became consul together with Manius Aquillius. He had to govern the province of Italy and was ordered by a resolution of the senate to decide on the legitimacy of the accusations of dispossessed Roman allies whose estates had been annexed by the

Gracchi The Gracchi brothers were two brothers who lived during the beginning of the late Roman Republic: Tiberius Gracchus and Gaius Gracchus. They served in the Tribune of the plebs, plebeian tribunates of 133 BC and 122–121 BC, respec ...

an commission for the allocation of fields. However, Tuditanus did not want to fulfill his task. Instead he went to

Illyria In classical and late antiquity, Illyria (; , ''Illyría'' or , ''Illyrís''; , ''Illyricum'') was a region in the western part of the Balkan Peninsula inhabited by numerous tribes of people collectively known as the Illyrians. The Ancient Gree ...

, allegedly because of an imminent war. In this way he also prevented the allocation of additional fields. According to Livy, "Consul Gaius Sempronius at first fought unsuccessfully against the Iapydians but the defeat was compensated by a victory won through the qualities of

Decimus Junius Brutus Callaicus Decimus Junius Brutus Callaicus (or Gallaecus or Callaecus; c. 180113 BC) was a consul of the Roman Republic for the year 138 BC together with Publius Cornelius Scipio Nasica Serapio. He was an optimate politician and a military commander in Hisp ...

(the man who had subdued Lusitania)." However, according to Appian, "Sempronius Tuditanus and Tiberius Pandusa waged war with the Iapydes, who live among the Alps, and seem to have subjugated them." Tuditanus was granted a triumph. He immortalized his victories over the Iapydes with a dedication to the river god Timavus in

Aquileia Aquileia is an ancient Roman city in Italy, at the head of the Adriatic at the edge of the lagoons, about from the sea, on the river Natiso (modern Natisone), the course of which has changed somewhat since Roman times. Today, the city is small ( ...

which bore a victory inscription in Saturnian verse and of which were found two fragments in 1906. Probably the Roman poet Hostius celebrated his deeds in the poem ''Bellum Histricum''.

Pliny the Elder Gaius Plinius Secundus (AD 23/24 79), known in English as Pliny the Elder ( ), was a Roman Empire, Roman author, Natural history, naturalist, and naval and army commander of the early Roman Empire, and a friend of the Roman emperor, emperor Vesp ...

, in his geographical work, quoted an inscription on the statue of Tuditanus (whom he called the conqueror of the Istrians because the Iapydes lived in

Istria Istria ( ; Croatian language, Croatian and Slovene language, Slovene: ; Italian language, Italian and Venetian language, Venetian: ; ; Istro-Romanian language, Istro-Romanian: ; ; ) is the largest peninsula within the Adriatic Sea. Located at th ...

) which listed the Roman towns in Istria, gave the river Arsa as the border with Italy and stated that the area was 400 kilometres wide.

Personal life

He may have been the father of the Sempronia who married Decimus Junius Brutus, the son of

Works

Tuditanus was also an author but only a few fragments of his works have been preserved. Cicero emphasized his elegant style. In the internal Roman power struggles Tuditanus belonged to the

Optimates ''Optimates'' (, ; Latin for "best ones"; ) and ''populares'' (; Latin for "supporters of the people"; ) are labels applied to politicians, political groups, traditions, strategies, or ideologies in the late Roman Republic. There is "heated ...

and wrote a tendentious treatise on Roman constitutional law (''libri magistratuum'') in at least thirteen books for the political support of his party. On the other side Marcus Junius Congus Gracchanus was the author of a similar work, ''De potestatibus'', at least seven books in length, that served the purposes of the party of the Gracchi. Both works were the earliest of their kind in the Roman literature. The ''libri magistratuum'' dealt with the intercalation, the appointment of the Plebeian Tribunes, the nundinae (market and feast days of the old Roman calendar), etc. Because some quotations (e.g., about the original inhabitants of

Latium Latium ( , ; ) is the region of central western Italy in which the city of Rome was founded and grew to be the capital city of the Roman Empire. Definition Latium was originally a small triangle of fertile, volcanic soil (Old Latium) on whic ...

called Aborigines, about the discovery of books, that allegedly belonged to the legendary Roman king

Numa Pompilius Numa Pompilius (; 753–672 BC; reigned 715–672 BC) was the Roman mythology, legendary second king of Rome, succeeding Romulus after a one-year interregnum. He was of Sabine origin, and many of Rome's most important religious and political ins ...

, etc.) do not seem to fit into a work about constitutional law, some scholars attribute to Tuditanus another work dealing with the history of Rome from its foundation to the 2nd century BC. It was probably the Roman universal scholar

Marcus Terentius Varro Marcus Terentius Varro (116–27 BCE) was a Roman polymath and a prolific author. He is regarded as ancient Rome's greatest scholar, and was described by Petrarch as "the third great light of Rome" (after Virgil and Cicero). He is sometimes call ...

who found out that Tuditanus used the annalists

Cato the Elder Marcus Porcius Cato (, ; 234–149 BC), also known as Cato the Censor (), the Elder and the Wise, was a Roman soldier, Roman Senate, senator, and Roman historiography, historian known for his conservatism and opposition to Hellenization. He wa ...

and Lucius Cassius Hemina as sources for his works, as well as the fact that his account corresponded with that given by his contemporary

Lucius Calpurnius Piso Frugi Lucius Calpurnius Piso Frugi may refer to: * Lucius Calpurnius Piso Frugi (consul 133 BC), Roman annalist and politician * Lucius Calpurnius Piso Frugi Licinianus, adopted heir of the emperor Galba, murdered by the emperor Otho {{hndis, Calpurnius ...

, but differed (because of the above-mentioned) from that by Junius Gracchanus. And it was again Varro who delivered the most preserved quotations of Tuditanus by later authors (

Dionysius of Halicarnassus Dionysius of Halicarnassus (, ; – after 7 BC) was a Greek historian and teacher of rhetoric, who flourished during the reign of Emperor Augustus. His literary style was ''atticistic'' – imitating Classical Attic Greek in its prime. ...

, and

Macrobius Ambrosius Theodosius Macrobius Ambrosius Theodosius, usually referred to as Macrobius (fl. AD 400), was a Roman provincial who lived during the early fifth century, during late antiquity, the period of time corresponding to the Later Roman Empire, and when Latin was ...

). But two quotations by

Aulus Gellius Aulus Gellius (c. 125after 180 AD) was a Roman author and grammarian, who was probably born and certainly brought up in Rome. He was educated in Athens, after which he returned to Rome. He is famous for his ''Attic Nights'', a commonplace book, ...

(''Attic Nights'' 7.4.1 and 13.15.4) go back to the historian Quintus Aelius Tubero (whose son of the same name was consul in 11 BC) and the augur Messalla respectively.Friedrich Münzer, ''Realencyclopädie'', vol. IIA 2, col. 1442-1443

References

Sources

*Friedrich Münzer: "Sempronius (92)". In: ''

Realencyclopädie der Classischen Altertumswissenschaft The Pauly encyclopedias or the Pauly-Wissowa family of encyclopedias, are a set of related encyclopedias on Greco-Roman world, Greco-Roman classical studies, topics and scholarship. The first of these, or (1839–1852), was begun by compiler A ...

'', vol. IIA, 2 (1923), col. 1441–1443. * H. Peter, ''Historicorum Romanorum Reliquiae'' (HRR) 1, p. 143-147. {{DEFAULTSORT:Sempronius Tuditanus, Gaius 2nd-century BC historians 2nd-century BC Roman consuls Latin historians Tuditanus, Gaius