A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology

2. SemproniusTuditanus, was a tribune of the soldiers at the battle of Cannae in B. C. 216, and one of the few Roman officers who survived that fatal day. When the smaller of the two Roman camps in which he had taken refuge was besieged by the Carthaginians, he bravely cut his way through the enemy with six hundred men, reached the larger camp, and from thence marched to Canusium, where he arrived in safety. Two years afterwards (B. C. 214) Tuditanus was curule aedile, and in the next year (B. C. 213) praetor, with Ariminum as his province. He took the town of Aternum, and was continued in the same command for the two following years (B. C. 212, 211). He was censor in B. C. 209 with M. Cornelius Cethegus, although neither he nor his colleague had yet held the consulship. In B. C. 205 he was sent into Greece with the title of proconsul, and at the head of a military and naval force, for the purpose of opposing Philip, with whom however he concluded a preliminary treaty, which was readily ratified by the Romans, who were anxious to give their undivided attention to the war in Africa. Tuditanus had, during his absence, been elected consul for the year 204 together with M. Cornelius Cethegus, his colleague in the censorship. He received Bruttii as his province with the conduct of the war against Hannibal. In the neighbourhood of Croton Tuditanus experienced a repulse, with a loss of twelve hundred men; but he shortly afterwards gained a decisive victory over Hannibal, who was obliged in consequence to shut himself up within the walls of Croton. It was in this battle that he vowed a temple to Fortuna Primigenia, if he should succeed in routing the enemy. In B. C. 201 Tuditanus was one of the three ambassadors sent to Ptolemy, king of Egypt. (Liv. 22.50. 60; Appian, Annib. 26; Liv. 24.43, 44, 47, 25.3, xxvi. I, 27.11, 38, 29.11, 12; Cic. Brut. 15, de Senect. 4; Liv. 29.13, 36, 31.2.)