Aulus Sempronius Atratinus

Who is Aulus Sempronius Atratinus?

Aulus Sempronius Atratinus was a Roman Republican politician of the gens Sempronia during the beginning of the 5th century BC. He served as Consul of Rome in 497 BC and again in 491 BC. He was of the patrician branch of his gens although the Sempronia gens also included certain plebian families.

Aulus Sempronius Atratinus served as a Roman consul in 497 BC and 491 BC. In both of those terms, he served together with Marcus Minucius Augurinus. Titus Livius cites Sempronius Atratinus as without a cognomen, but the consular records show only his cognomen. Dionysius of Halicarnassus refers to him with his full name.

During his first consular appointment in 497 BC, he consecrated the newly built Temple of Saturn in the Roman forum. The aforementioned writers relate the foundation with the festivals of Saturnalia.

There had been a famine in Rome in the previous year and, in 491 BC during Sempronius' second consulship, a significant quantity of corn was imported from Sicily, and the question of how it should be distributed amongst the Roman citizens, together with tensions arising from the recent secession of the plebs, led to the exile and defection of Gaius Marcius Coriolanus after he unsuccessfully advocated the reversal of the reforms which arose from the secession, including the creation of the office of the tribunes.