consul in B. C. 454 with A. Aternius Varus. A lex de multae sacramento which was carried in his consulship, is mentioned by Festus (s. v. peculatus, comp. Cic. de Re Publ. 2.35; Liv. 3.31; Dionys. A. R. 10.48, 50). After the close of their office both consuls were accused by a tribune of the people for having sold the booty which they had made in the war against the Aequians, and giving the proceeds to the aerarium instead of distributing it among the soldiers. Both were condemned notwithstanding the violent opposition of the senate. In B. C. 449, when the Roman army advanced towards Rome to revenge the murder of Virginia, and had taken possession of the Aventine, Sp. Tarpeius was one of the two ambassadors whom the senate sent to the revolted army to remonstrate with then. In the year following, he and A. Aternius, though both were patricians, were elected tribunes of the plebs by the cooptation of the college to support the senate in its opposition to the rogation of the tribune L. Trebonius. (Liv. 3.50, 55.)