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

766 LEPIDUS.'L'EPIDUS.
the hopes of the aristocrats who had'raised him Xt especially as Paullus is expressly said to have
the consulship, for Caesar gained him over to his received money from Caesar for the erection of one
side by a bribe of 1500 talents, which he is said of thesA basilicae. Cicero's letter (1. c.) certainly
to have expended on the completion of his basilica. speaks as if the new basilica were to be built by
By accepting this bribe he lost the confidence of Paullus at Caear's expense; and it may therefore
all parties, and accordingly seems to have taken no be that the statement of Appian (B. C. ii. 26) and
part in the civil war between Pompey and Caesar. Plutarch ((aes. 29), that Paullus was bribed by
After the murder of the latter, in B. C. 44, Paullus Caesar in his consulship with a sum of 1500
joined the senatorial party; and he was one of the talents, and that he expended this upon the basilica
senators who declared M. Lepidus a public enemy, Aemilia, is not quite correct.' The mistake, howon the 30th of June, B. C. 43, on account of his ever, is a very natural one; for though the 1500
having joined Antony; and, accordingly, when talents, might halvebeen appropriated to the erection
the triumvirate was formed in the autumn of the of the new basilica, subsequent writers would
same year, his name was set down first in the naturally suppose that the money had been exproscription list by his own brother. The soldiers, pended upon the building which bore the name of
however, who were appointed to kill him, allowed Aemilius Paullus in their own time. For a further
him to escape, probably with the connivance of his discussion of this subject, which hardly belongs to
brother. He passed over to Brutus in Asia, and the present work, the reader is referred to Becker
after the death of the latter repaired to Miletus. (1. c.)
Here he remained, and refused to go to Rome, The basilica Aemilia in the forum was rebuilt at
although he was pardoned by the triumvirs. As his own expense byPaullusAemilius Lepidus [No.
he is not mentioned again, he probably died soon 19], the son of the present article, and'dedicated in
afterwards. (Sall. Cat. 31; Schol. Bob. in Vatin. his consulship, B. c. 34 (Dion Cass. xlix. 42). It was
p. 320, ed. Orelli; Cic. in Vatin. 10, ad Att. ii. burnt down twenty years afterwards, B. c. 14, by a
24, ad Qus. Fr. ii. 4, pro Mil. 9, ad Alt. vi. 1, 3, fire, which also destroyed the temple of Vesta, and
ad Fam. viii. 4, 8, 10, 11, xv. 12, 13; Appian, was rebuilt nominally by Paullus Lepidus, but in
B. C. ii. 26; Dion Cass. xl. 43, 63; Suet. Caes. reality by Augustus and the friends of Paullus
29; Plut. CGaes. 29, Pomp. 58;' Liv. Epit. 120; (Dion Cass. liv. 24). The new building was a
Appian, B. C. iv. 12, 37; Dion Cass. xlvii. 6; most magnificent one; its columns of Phrygian
Vell. Pat. ii. 67.) marble were especially celebrated (Plin. H. N.
xxxvi. 15, 24). It was again repaired by Lepidus
[No. 23] in the reign of Tiberius, A. D. 22 (Tac.
Ann. iii. 72).
17. M. AEMILIUS M. F. Q. N. LEPIDUS, the
P > t }i X triumvir, was the brother of the preceding [No.
16], and the son of No. 13. He was a lineal
descendant of the pontifex maximus, M. Aemilius
Lepidus, consul in B. C. 187 and 175, though, as
we have seen, it is doubtful whether he was the
abnepos or great-grandson of the latter, as Cicero
The preceding coin contains on the obverse the calls him [see No. 7].
head of Vesta, and on the reverse the Basilica M. Lepidus is first mentioned in the year B. C.
Aemilia. 52, when the senate appointed him interrex, after
It has been already seen that Cicero says (ad the death of Clodius, for the purpose of holding the
Att. iv. 16) that Aemilius Paullus restored a comitia. Rome was almost in a state of anarchy;
basilica in the forum, and also commenced a new and because Lepidus refused to hold the comitia
one. The former must have been the same as the for the election of the consuls, on the ground that
one originally built by the censors M. Aemilius it was not usual for the first interrex to do so, his
Lepidus and M. Fulvius Nobilior, in B. C. 179. As house was attacked by the Clodian mobs, and he
M. Fulvius seems to have had the principal share himself narrowly escaped with his life. On the
in its construction (Liv. xl. 51), it was generally breaking out of the civil war between Pompey and
called the Fulvia basilica (Plut. Caes. 29), some- Caesar, B. C. 49, Lepidus, who was then praetor,
times the Aemilia et Fulvia (Varr L. L. vi. 2), but joined the party of the latter; and as the consuls
after the restoration by Aemilius Paullus, it was had fled with Pompey from Italy, Lepidus, as
always called the Basilica Paulli or Aemilia. The praetor, was the highest magistrate remaining in
restoration of this basilica was almost completed in Italy. Caesar accordingly, when he set out for
B.c. 54, the year in which Cicero (1. c.) was writing. Spain, to carry on the war against Afranius and
But the question where the new one was built is a Petreius, left Lepidus nominally in charge of the
very difficult one to answer. Most modern writers city, though he really depended upon Antony for
have supposed that the two basilicae were built by the preservation of peace in Italy. During Caesa;lr's
the side of one another in the forum; but this absence in Spain, Lepidus presided at the comitia,
seems hardly possible to have been the case, since in which the former was appointed dictator, who
we never find mention of more than one basilica was thus able to hold the consular comitia, which
Aemilia or Paulli in all the ancient writers. (Tac. it would have been impossible for a praetor to
Ann. iii. 72; Plin. II.N. xxxvi. 15, 24; Stat. have done.
Silv. i. 1. 29; Plut. Caes. 29, Galb. 26; Dion In the following year, B. C. 48, Lepidus received
Cass. xlix. 42, liv. 24; Appian, B. C. ii. 26.) the province of Nearer Spain, with the title of
Becker, therefore, supposes (Handb. der Rom. Al- proconsul, and here displayed both the vanity and`terthiimer, vol. i. pp. 301-306) that the new build- avarice which marked his character. Having coming, which Paullus commenced, was the same as pelled the proconsul Q. Cassius Longinus, in Furthe one afterwards called the Basilica Julia, more ther Spain, and his quaestor M. Marcellus, who were