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Sempronia

by Eugenia Salza Prina Ricotti

Sempronia


Once upon the time women had in this world a well defined role: family and children. They were wise and strong, and able to bear all kind of sacrifices for their dear ones. In conclusion they were the columns of their households. A woman who emerged from the haze of the past woman was also Sempronia. She was a lady who lived many and many centuries ago, but I highly doubt that she ever was the column of her household. Certainly history did not present her as an angel about the house.
Apart of this she had a lot of gifts. She belonged to a noble family and she was beautiful; historians say that she was extremely so; her voice was very sweet and melodious and she liked to sing the verses that, as she was a good poetess, she had just written. She sang them playing a lyre and it seems that her friends enjoyed the show. Beside all this, as all the girls of a certain standing, she did receive a very good schooling and had a deep knowledge of both Greek and Latin literature.
To conclude, when all’s said and done, she was a perfect creature of those vivid times at the end of the second half of the I cent. B.C., a time when the customs were very relaxed and in which Sempronia, now married with Brutus Callaicus, shone and emerged. People banqueted, met and also danced and not only the honest matrons did it - also if they did it in a very modest way - but even the senators’ children attended special schools and danced marking the time with the sound of the castanets. Also in this field Sempronia outdid everybody and, as always, was perfect, the trouble was that she was too much perfect. As a matter of fact the historian Sallustius accused her “to dance with more skill than was required to a honest woman” and the rest is left to our own imagination.
A little later Sallustius helps us adding how much she was always able to arouse the desire of all men she met, and if to this we add the statement about her dancing exhibitions we can easily understand what kind of shows she could offer.
Apart of all this Sempronia was a continuous surprise. For instance his contemporaries were often shocked by the contrast between her refined figure and the kind of vulgar language she used when angry. But the coarse words she freely employed were the least sin that was imputed to her. No, it was not so much her brothel’s language that shocked the Roman society, but the fact that she easily broke her word, that she was up to her ears in debt and never settled them, and – as it was often whispered around - that she had even abetted some murders. In comparison with all these crimes her unbridled desire of sex that pushed her to continuously search the company of young and ardent males, a desire of sex even greater of the one that their counterparts felt for her, became a very secondary sin, which could only disturb the poor cuckolded Brutus Callaicus.
A beautiful and fascinating woman Sempronia, but dangerous as a cobra. Anyway the moment in which she lived, a period of transformation, full of tragic happenings, of political fights, of corrupted morals and violent hates, was just what was right for her. It was unavoidable that Sempronia with her nature pushed toward adventure would become involved in Catilina’s conspiracy and there is no reason to marvel if she ended by plunging herself head first in it. Longing for adventures? Hope of riches? Ambition? Heaven knows. Maybe a little of everything. For us more than to know why she meddled in the plot, it would be much more interesting to know which role Sempronia held in the conspiracy, but on this argument Sallustius keep things vague. However, given the exuberant personality of this lady we can assuredly swear that it couldn’t have been a secondary role.
It was at this moment that in Sempronia’s life Caesar made his entrance. Probably he contacted her about Catilina. Sempronia was part of the conspiracy and in it she must have had an important standing. Caesar kept himself out of everything, but probably wanted to know more about what Catilina had in his mind, about who were the conspirators, and about what were their plans, and for this he arranged to meet her. The two talked a lot about Catilina, the conspiration and the conspirators. Anyway as soon as Caesar had reached his aim, their common interest changed and from this moment politics became secondary for them.
Caesar then was more interested in Sempronia than in Catilina and his conspiration. He was the kind of man that never did let slip from his hands a handsome woman as Sempronia was, and Sempronia was certainly even more decided than Caesar to take a firm hold on him. That Caesar loved all women he found on his way was a very well known fact and Suetonius confirms it. He not only conquered Gaul and England, but with his personal appeal he won also many noble women. It seems that he went to bed with all his general’s wives and to them he added also Pompeius’ wife Mucia, a woman who with the Magnus had been married for seventeen years and had given him a daughter and two sons. Thus Pompeius was obliged to divorce her and the scandal was great.
All Caesar’s mistresses were very good women who, left in peace, would always happily stay so, but for what concerned Sempronia she absolutely did not want to be left in peace and if Caesar did not have attacked her, she would never have left him in peace.
For a strange trick of the destiny the lady who was throwing herself into Caesar arms was also the mother of one of his murderers, Decimus Brutus Albinus, one of the more despicable among them, but if on the other Brutus weighted the suspect of the parricide, of Decimus at least Caesar was sure not to be his father. When he became Sempronia’s lover the young man was already born. Anyway the Hides of March were still far away and Caesar and Sempronia fell one in the arms of the other. It was a very pleasant affair and Sempronia was included in the circle of the women who had a part in the life of Caesar’s and in his bed. As the others she got fleetingly in the great history, the one with a capital H.
We don’t know how long the affair lasted. Not much time, anyway. Soon the conspiration was ended and tragically concluded. With Catilina’s death their relation closed, and they both resumed their lives. The time went by and Caesar stood out in the history greater than ever, while slowly Sempronia vanished in the haze of the past, leaving behind her a disturbing but fascinating memento of a beautiful and dangerous lady and of course also that grain of yearning that always characterize the memory of past beauty.


Bibliography
Scientific divulgation
E. SALZA PRINA RICOTTI, Sempronia in Archeo Luglio 2003, pp. 110-111.
Academic Papers
E. SALZA PRINA RICOTTI, Amori ed amanti tra la repubblica ed il principato, Casa editrice, L’Erma di Bretschneider, Roma, 1992