The Trials of Sempronius and Postumia

The Partial Historians are back in the 420s BCE and we are wrapping up the decade with some first-class DRAMA! At the centre of it all are the trials of Sempronius and Postumia. The only question is, can you handle it?

Episode 139 – The Trials of Sempronius and Postumia

Fake Elections

The year began with some classic conflict between the patricians and the plebeians. The tribunes of the plebs were FURIOUS when their relatives did not get elected as quaestors. There was only one possible explanation – election fraud!

There was clearly one man to blame: Aulus Sempronius Atratinus. He had been in charge of overseeing the elections and he had rigged the results. Unfortunately, he was also a military tribune and therefore immune from prosecution. But that didn’t mean that his relatives were…

The Trial of Sempronius

The tribunes set their sights on Atratinus’ cousin, Gaius Sempronius. Sempronius was the perfect target. He had been in charge of a DISASTROUS military campaign in 423 BCE. Time for vengeance!

Jean Lemaire c. 1645-1655. Roman Senators and Legates.
The picture shows senators walking though a square attended by lictors. Maybe they’re on their way to a trial!

Poor Postumia

Sempronius was not the only person to find themselves on trial in 420 BCE. A Vestal Virgin named Postumia was accused of incestum. Apparently, her clothing was a bit too sexy, and she had a sense of humour. What a horrible combination! Think of the children!

However, incestum was a very serious charge as it put the Romans’ relationship with the gods in jeopardy. It was no joke for Postumia either. Charges like this could lead to live burial for a Vestal.

Tune in to find out whether Sempronius and Postumia manage to emerge victorious from their respective trials.

A modern imagining of Vestal Virgin by sculptor Joseph-Charles Marin 1791-95.
Courtesy of Mary Harrsch on Flickr.

Things to Look Out For:

• Clear signs of our Partiality
• Lengthy digressions on work apparel
• Red lipstick and mini skirts
• Patrician morality par excellence  
• Family rivalry
• Immense excitement to find a woman in our story – at last!
• Dr G’s immense expertise on Vestal Virgins

Need a recap on Sempronius? Check out our previous episodes on 423 BCE and 422-21 BCE.

Our Players 420 BCE

Military Tribunes with Consular Power

• L. Quinctius L. f. L. n. Cincinnatus (Pat) Mil. Tr. c. p. 438, 425
• T. Quinctius L. f. L. n. Poenus Cincinnatus (Pat) Cos. 431, 428a, Mil. Tr. c. p. 426
• L. Furius Sp. f. -n. Medullinus (Pat) Mil. Tr. c. p. 432, 425
• M. Manlius – f. – n. Vulso (Pat)
• A. Sempronius L. f. A. n. Atratinus (Pat) Cos. 428b, Mil. Tr. c. p. 428, 416  

Tribunes of the Plebs

• A. Antistius
• Sex. Pompilius
• M. Canuleius

Interrex

• L. Papirius Mugillanus (Pat) Cos. 427, Mil. Tr. c. p. 422

Pontifices

• Sp. Minucius

Vestal Virgin

• Postumia

Our Sources

• Dr G reads Plutarch, de Capienda 89f.
• Dr Rad reads Livy ab Urbe Condita 4.44.
• Broughton, T. R. S., Patterson, M. L. 1951. The Magistrates of the Roman Republic Volume 1: 509 B.C. – 100 B.C. (The American Philological Association)
• Cornell, T. J. 1995. The Beginnings of Rome: Italy and Rome from the Bronze Age to the Punic Wars (c. 1000-264 BC) (Taylor & Francis)
• Forsythe, G. 2006. A Critical History of Early Rome: From Prehistory to the First Punic War(University of California Press) 
• Greenfield, P. 2011. Virgin Territory: The Vestals and the Transition from Republic to Principate [Doctoral Thesis, The University of Sydney]
• Lomas, Kathryn (2018). The rise of Rome. History of the Ancient World. Cambridge: Harvard University Press. doi:10.4159/9780674919938. ISBN 978-0-674-65965-0. S2CID 239349186.
• Ogilvie, R. M. 1965. A Commentary on Livy: Books 1-5 (Clarendon Press). 

Sound Credits

Our music was composed by Bettina Joy de Guzman

Sound effects thanks to Pixabay, Fesliyan Studios and BBC Sounds.

A statue of a Vestal Virgin in the atrium Vestae (house of the Vestals) in Rome.
Courtesy of Carole Raddato via Wikimedia Commons.

Automated Transcript

An automated transcript of this episode has been provided thank to Otter AI.

Dr Rad  00:16

Welcome to the partial historians,

Dr G  00:20

we explore all the details of ancient Rome.

Dr Rad  00:23

Everything from the political scandals, the love of ours, the battles waged, and when citizens turn against each other. I’m Dr. Rad.

Dr G  00:34

And I’m Dr. G. We consider Rome as the Roman Sword by reading different authors from the ancient past and comparing their stories.

Dr Rad  00:43

Join us as we trace the journey of Rome from the founding of the city.

Dr G  01:06

Hello, and welcome to a brand new episode of the partial historians. I am Dr. G.

Dr Rad  01:16

And I am Dr. Red and I’m in a very special t shirt today. Dr. G. My All, roads lead to Rome t shirt.

Dr G  01:26

Are you hoping to sneak into my suitcase to come on a certain trip?

Dr Rad  01:30

I’m just dropping subtle hints.

Dr G  01:34

If I can fit you, I’ll take you.

Dr Rad  01:36

Excellent. Excellent.

Dr G  01:37

So we have been tracing the history of Rome from the foundation, the traditional foundation date of 753 BCE. And in our last episode, I think if I remember rightly, we were dealing with 422 BCE, (and 421) and 421. So yeah, go we covered a lot of ground, because I remember the four horsemen being very-  they were stand out for me. So this means that we’re going to be talking about we’re starting at 420. So real shame that we didn’t record this in April.

Dr Rad  02:15

Yes, yes, that’s absolutely right. We are recording about 420 today. So to briefly recap, 422 and 421, which is our previous episode, we’re interested in good ol conflicts of the orders. Dr. G.

Dr G  02:30

Oh, yes. Well, I love a good conflict of the orders. hasn’t this been going on for centuries now?

Dr Rad  02:36

Not quite centuries, almost a century I think. Only there were nearly there. We still got, you know, a couple of centuries to go. It’ll fly by the flyway. We won’t, we won’t be dead at all. By the time we finish.

Dr G  02:51

Everything seemed to swill around the situation with Sempronius, one of the guys that’s been sent out with some troops, and he’s done seemingly a poor job. And he’s then been taken on to trial for being such a bad general. And all of his, all of his lower down cavalry commanders have come to his aid being like, this guy was great. And he did the best he could in a tough situation.

Dr Rad  03:16

Yeah, absolutely. So we do have the situation with Sempronius, which is fallout from seemingly a not great military encounter that Rome had with the Volscians in 423 Sempronius, the unfortunate and perhaps incompetent leader of said military effort, and we’re dealing with the fallout of that. And definitely we saw that some of his men came to his assistance when it looked like he was going to be in danger of being prosecuted or something like that. And then we had even more conflict of the orders. I mean, that wasn’t really conflict for the orders, except that it was interesting that it was this fight happening with Tribune’s of the plebs who were our four horsemen, and they’d been involved in the battle in the previous year. And then Sempronius, who was a patrician, we then got more explicitly into the conflict of the orders in the following year, where we had this debate about could a plebeian become a quaestor? And we had so many interreges, they were coming out of our ears, Dr. G.

Dr G  04:18

And it’s been a really weird time. Rome is definitely trying to figure itself out politically, militarily. It’s been a rough ride.

Dr Rad  04:27

Yeah, it really has. But there was the resolution was they ended up coming full circle. And going back to the compromise that was put forward, right