Lepidus

Marcus Aemilius Lepidus (c. 89 BC – late 13 or early 12 BC) was a Roman general and statesman. He joined the Second Triumvirate with Octavian and Mark Antony near the end of the Roman Republic. Before that, he had been a loyal supporter of Julius Caesar. Lepidus also served as the final pontifex maximus before the Roman Empire, and is thought to have been the last interrex and magister equitum to command troops.

Lepidus came from a prominent family. His father, also Marcus Aemilius Lepidus, was consul in 78 BC and led an unsuccessful revolt of the populares faction against the optimates after Sulla’s death. His mother may have been the daughter of Lucius Appuleius Saturninus. His brother was Lucius Aemilius Lepidus Paullus, consul in 50 BC. Lepidus married Junia Secunda, half-sister of Marcus Junius Brutus and sister of Marcus Junius Silanus, Junia Prima, and Junia Tertia (who was married to Cassius Longinus). They had at least two sons: Marcus Aemilius Lepidus the Younger, and Quintus Aemilius Lepidus, who stayed out of politics and fathered Manius Aemilius Lepidus, consul in 11 AD.

Lepidus began his career early, joining the College of Pontiffs as a child. Around 62 to 58 BC, he served as triumvir monetalis, overseeing coin minting. He became a praetor in 49 BC, managing Rome while Caesar fought Pompey in Greece. Lepidus secured Caesar’s appointment as dictator, which Caesar used to become consul before resigning the dictatorship after eleven days. As a reward, Lepidus was made propraetor in Hispania Citerior. He was also nominated interrex by the Senate in 52 BC, the last known Roman to hold that office.

In Spain, Lepidus was sent to suppress a rebellion against Quintus Cassius Longinus, the corrupt governor of Hispania Ulterior. Instead of backing Cassius, Lepidus negotiated with the rebel leader, the quaestor Marcellus, and helped repel an attack by the Mauretanian king Bogud. Cassius and his supporters were allowed to leave, and order was restored. Caesar and the Senate were impressed enough to grant Lepidus a triumph.

After the Pompeians were defeated in the East, Lepidus became consul in 46 BC. Caesar also made him magister equitum, his deputy. Caesar trusted Lepidus more than Mark Antony to keep order in Rome, especially after Antony’s disruptive behavior in 47 BC. Lepidus was genuinely shocked when Antony offered Caesar a crown at the Lupercalia festival, an act that helped spark the conspiracy to kill Caesar. When Caesar was made dictator for life in February 44 BC, he appointed Lepidus magister equitum for a second time. Caesar dined at Lepidus’s house the night before his assassination on the Ides of March. The conspirator Gaius Cassius Longinus wanted to kill Lepidus and Antony as well, but Marcus Junius Brutus argued against it, insisting the assassination was an execution, not a coup.

After Caesar’s murder, Lepidus acted quickly to maintain order, moving troops to the Campus Martius. He wanted to use his army to punish the killers, but Antony and Aulus Hirtius talked him out of it. The next day, Lepidus and Antony spoke in the Senate, accepting an amnesty for the assassins in exchange for keeping their own offices and Caesar’s reforms. Lepidus also secured the position of pontifex maximus, succeeding Caesar.

Sextus Pompey, Pompey’s surviving son, then threatened Spain. Lepidus was sent to negotiate and successfully made a peace agreement, for which the Senate voted a public thanksgiving. He then governed both Hispania and Narbonese Gaul as proconsul. When Antony tried to take Cisalpine Gaul by force from Decimus Brutus, the Senate, led by Cicero, asked Lepidus to support Brutus, one of Caesar’s killers. Lepidus hesitated, urging negotiation instead. After Antony lost the Battle of Mutina, the Senate told Lepidus his troops were no longer needed. Antony then marched toward Lepidus’s province with his remaining forces. Lepidus kept assuring the Senate of his loyalty while secretly negotiating with Antony. When the two armies met, many of Lepidus’s soldiers joined Antony, and Lepidus struck a deal with him.

Though a capable military commander and useful to Caesar, Lepidus is consistently portrayed as the weakest member of the Triumvirate. He appears as a marginal figure in accounts of the era, especially in Shakespeare’s plays. Some scholars agree with this view, but others argue that the evidence is too thin to separate fact from the propaganda spread by his enemies, mainly Cicero and later Augustus.