Publius Sempronius Sophus was a Roman politician and general who achieved the honors of being both consul and censor in his political career, as well as renown for being a talented and well respected jurist.
Sempronius was a member of the noble Roman clan of the Sempronii, a gens which had acquired two consulships and four consular tribuneships in the first century of the republic, but had since fallen into obscurity.
In 310 BC, Sempronius attained his first known political position as Tribune of the plebs, and played a major role in the domestic activities of Rome for that year.
Indeed, for in that year the censor Appius Claudius Crassus, later to be known as Caecus, refused to abdicate his position despite his 18-month term being completed and the fact that his colleague had himself resigned in accordance to the law.
After reading out loud the Lex Aemilia, the law that restricted the term of the censor to 18 months, and praising the noble intent of the author of the law, Mamercus Aemilius Mamercinus, Sempronius apparently commenced a long speech which denounced Claudius, comparing him to both his infamous ancestor, the decemvir Appius Claudius Crassus and the hated Tarquinius Superbus.
Since both consuls were away from Rome campaigning against the Etruscans, the Senate gave command of this army to Sempronius in his position as praetor, so that he may guard the city.