Sempronia

1. The daughter of Tib. Gracchus, censor B. C. 169, and the sister of the two celebrated tribunes, married Scipio Africanus minor. We know nothing of her private life or character. On the sudden death of her husband, she and her mother Cornelia were suspected by some persons of having murdered him, since Scipio did not like her on account of her want of beauty and her sterility, and she likewise had no affection for him. But there is no evidence against her; and if Scipio was really murdered, Papirius Carbo was most probably the guilty party. [Scipio, No. 21, p. 750.] (Appian, App. BC 1.20; Liv. Epit. 59 ; Schol. Bob. pro Mil. p. 283.)

2. The wife of D. Junius Brutus, consul B. C. 77, was a woman of great personal attractions and literary accomplishments, but of a profligate character. She took part in Catiline's conspiracy, though her husband was not privy to it (Sall. Cat. 25, 40). Asconius speaks of a Sempronia, the daughter of Tuditanus, and the mother of P. Clodius, who gave her testimony at the trial of Milo, in B. C. 52 (Ascon. in Milon. p. 41, ed. Orelli). Orelli supposes that she may be the same as the wife of Brutus mentioned above.

patrician and plebeian. This gens was of great antiquity, and one of its members, A. Sempronius Atratinus, obtained the consulship as early as B. C. 497, twelve years after the foundation of the republic. The Sempronii were divided into many families, of which the Atratini were undoubtedly patrician, but all the others appear to have been plebeian : their names are Asellio, Blaesus, Densus, Gracchus, Longus, Musca, Pitio, Rufus, Rutilus, Sophus, Tuditanus. Of these, Atratinus, Gracchus, and Pitio alone occur on coins. The glory of the Sempronia gens is confined to the republican period. Very few persons of this name, and none of them of any importance, are mentioned under the empire.

(1) The daughter of Tib. Gracchus, censor in B.C. 169, and sister of the two celebrated tribunes, married Scipio Africanus Minor.

(2) Wife of D. Iunius Brutus, consul in B.C. 77, was a woman of great personal attractions and literary accomplishments, but of a profligate character. She took part in Catiline's conspiracy, though her husband was not privy to it (Sall. Cat. 25, 40).