A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology. By various writers. Ed. by William Smith. Illustrated by numerous engravings on wood.

7 64 LEPIDUS. LEPIDUS.
could not have been the son of No. 7, as Drumann 12. Q. AEMIL1US LePIDus, the grandfather of
alleges. Lepidus the triumvir, must have been either a soil
9. M. AEMILIUS LEPIDUS, the son of No. 7, or grandson of No. 7. [See below, No. 17.] But
tribune of the soldiers in the war against Anti- the dates will hardly allow us to suppose that he
ochus the Great, B. C. 190. (Liv. xxxvii. 43.) was a son. He was therefore probably a son of
10. M. AEMILIUS M. F. M. N. LEPIDUS POR- No. 9, and a grandson of No. 7.
CINA, son probably of No. 9, and grandson of No. 13. M. AEMILIUS Q. F. M. N. LEPIDUS, the
7, was consul B. C. 137. He was sent into Spain son of No. 11, and the father of the triumvir, was
in his consulship to succeed his colleague C. Hos- praetor in Sicily in B.C. 81, where he earned a
tilius Mancinus, who had been defeated by the character by his oppressions only second to that of
Numantines [MANCINUS]; and while he was Verres. (Cic. in Verr. iii. 91.) In the civil wars
waiting for reinforcements from home, as he was between Marius and Sulla he belonged at first to
not yet in a condition to attack the Numantines, the party of the latter, and acquired considerable
he resolved to make war upon the Vaccaei, under property by the purchase of confiscated estates
the pretence of their having assisted the Numan- but he was afterwards seized with the ambition
tines. This he did merely from the desire of dis- of becoming a leader of the popular party, to
tilguishing himself; and the senate, immediately which post he might perhaps consider himself as in
his intention became known, sent deputies to corn- some degree entitled, by having married Appuleia,
mand him to desist from his design, as they depre- the daughter of the celebrated tribune Appuleius
cated a new war in Spain, after experiencing so Saturninus. He accordingly sued for the conmany disasters. Lepidus, however, had commenced sulship in B. c. 79, in opposition to Sulla; but
the war before the deputies arrived, and had sum- the latter, who had resigned his dictatorship in
mioned to his assistance his relation, D. Brutus, who this year, felt that his power was too well estacorlmanded in Further Spain, and was a general blished to be shaken by any thing that Lepidlus
of considerable experience and skill. [BRUTUS, could do, and accordingly made no efforts to oppose
No. 15, p. 509, b.] Notwithstanding his aid, his election. Pompey, moreover, whose vanity
Lepidus was unsuccessful. After laying waste the was inflamed by the desire of returning a candidate
open country, the two generals laid siege to Pal- against the wishes of the all-powerful Sulla, exlantia, the capital of the Vaccaei (the modern erted himself warmly to secure the election of
Palencia), but they suffered so dreadfully from Lepidus, and not only succeeded, but brought him
want of provisions, that they were obliged to raise in by more votes than his colleague, Q. Lutatius
the siege; and a considerable part of their army Catulus, who belonged to the ruling party. Sulla
was destroyed by the enemy in their retreat. This viewed all these proceedings with great indifferhappened in the proconsulship of Lepidus, B. C. ence, and contented himself with warning Pompey,
136; and when the news reached Rome, Lepidus when he met him returning in pride from the elecwas deprived of his command, and condemned to tion, that he had strengthened one who would be
pay a fine. (Appian, Hisp. 80-83, who says his rival.
-that Lepidus was deprived of his consulship, by The death of Sulla in the following year, B. C.
which we must understand proconsulship; Liv. 78, soon after Lepidus and Catulus had entered
Epit. 56; Oros. v. 5.) Lepidus was augur in B. C. upon their consulship, determined Lepidus to make
125, when he was summoned by the censors, Cn. the bold attempt to rescind the laws of Sulla and
Servilius Caepio and L. Cassius Longinus, to ac- overthrow the aristocratical constitution which he
count for having built a house in too magnificent a had established. There were abundant materials
style. (Vell. Pat. ii. 10; Val. Max. viii. 1, damn. 7.) of discontent in Italy, and it would not have been
Lepidus was a man of education and refined difficult to collect a numerous army; but the victaste. Cicero, who had read his speeches, speaks tory of the aristocratical party was too firmly
of him as the greatest orator of his age, and says secured by Sulla's military colonies to fear any
that he was the first who introduced into Latin attempts that Lepidus might make, since he did
oratory the smooth and even flow of words and the not possess either sufficient influence or sufficient
artificial construction of sentences which distin- talent to take the lead in a great revolution. He
guished the Greek. He helped to form the style seems, moreover, to have reckoned upon the asof Tib. Gracchus and C. Carbo, who were accus- sistance of Pompey, who remained, on the contomed to listen to him with great care. He was, trary, firm to the aristocracy. The first movement:however, very deficient in a knowledge of law and of Lepidus was to endeavour to prevent the burial
Roman institutions. (Cic. Brut. 25, 86, 97, de of Sulla in the Campus Martins, but he was obliged
Orat. i. 10, Tscaul. i. 3; Auctor, ad Herenn. iv. 5.) to relinquish this design through the opposition of
In politics Lepidus seems to have belonged to the Pompey. He next formally proposed several laws
aristocratical party. He opposed in his consulship with the object of abolishing Sulla's constitution,
(B. C, 137) the law for introducing the ballot (lex but their exact provisions are not mentioned by
tabellaria) proposed by L. Cassius Longinus (Cic. the ancient writers. We know, however, that he
Brut. 25); and it appears from a fragment of Pris- proposed to recall all persons who had been procian (vol. i. p. 456), that Lepidus spoke in favour of scribed, and, to restore to them their property,
a repeal of the lex Aemilia, which was probably which had passed into the hands of other parties.
the sumptuary law proposed by the consul, M. Such a measure would- alone have thrown all
Aemilius Scaurus in B. C. 115. (Meyer, Orator. Italy into confusion again. At Rome the utmost
Rom. Fragm. p. 193, &c. 2d. ed.) agitation prevailed. Catulus showed himself a
II 1. M. AEMILIUS M. F. M. N. LEPIDUS, consul firm and dauntless friend of the aristocracy,
B. C. 126 (Cic. Bmrt. 28; Obsequ. 89; Oros. v. 10.), and appears to have obtained a tribune to put
and brother apparently of No. 10., though it is his veto upon the rogations of Lepidus. The
difficult to account for their both having the same exasperation between the two parties rose to its
praenomen. height, and the senate saw no other means of