Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 2.djvu/777

 consulship is uncertain. Some have supposed that he was consul suffectus in 220. (Pighius, ad Ann.)

 3. , eldest son of the preceding, was praetor in 218, when he commanded in Sicily ; and in the following year he is spoken of by Livy as praetor in Rome ; but we must suppose that in the latter year he was only propraetor. He was an unsuccessful candidate for the consulship for 216. (Liv. xxi. 49, 51, xxii. 9, 33, 35, xxiii. 30.)

 4. , brother of No. 3. (Liv. xxiii. 30.)

 5. , brother of Nos. 3 and 4. (Liv. xxiii. 30.)

 6. M. or M´. , praetor 213. (Liv. xxiv. 43, 44.) In Livy the praenomen is Marcus ; but instead of this we ought probably to read Manius ; for we find that the M. Aemilius Lepidus who was consul in 158 is described in the Fasti as ''M´. f. M´. n.'' ; and as there was another M. Lepidus praetor in 218 [see No. 3], it is probable that the praetor in 213 was M´. Lepidus, the father of the consul of 158. Marcus was such a well-known praenomen of the Lepidi, that we can easily understand why it should be substituted for the less common one of Manius.

 7. , the son of No. 3, was perhaps the Lepidus who is said to have served in the army while still a boy (puer), and to have killed an enemy, and saved the life of a citizen. (Val. Max. iii. 1. § 1.) This event is referred to in the accompanying coin of the Aemilia gens : it bears on the obverse a woman's head, and on the reverse a horseman, with the legend, that is, ''M. Lepidus annorum xv. praetextatus hostem occidit, civem ser-''

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vavit. He was one of three ambassadors sent by the Romans in 201 to the Egyptian court, which was then a firm ally of the republic, and had solicited them to send some one to administer the affairs of the kingdom for their infant sovereign Ptolemy V. Although Lepidus was the youngest of the three ambassadors, he seems to have enjoyed the most power and influence, and accordingly we find writers speaking of him alone as the tutor of the Egyptian king (Tac. Ann. ii. 67 ; Justin. xxx. 2, 3 ; Val. Max. vi. 6. § 1) ; and it is not improbable that he remained in Egypt in that capacity when his colleagues returned to Rome. His superior importance is also shown by his colleagues sending him alone to Philip III. of Macedonia, who had exhibited signs of hostility towards the Romans by the siege of Abydos, and who was not a little astonished at the haughty bearing of the young Roman noble on this occasion. How long Lepidus remained in Egypt is uncertain, but as he was chosen one of the pontiffs in 199, we must conclude that he was in Rome at that time, though he may have returned again to Egypt. He was elected aedile 192, praetor 191 with Sicily as his province, and consul 187, after two unsuccessful attempts to obtain the latter dignity. In his consulship he was engaged, with his colleague C. Flaminius, in the conquest of the Ligurians ; and after the reduction of this people, he continued the Via Flaminia from Ariminum by way of Bononia to Placentia, and from thence to Aquileia. (Comp. Strab. v. p. 217.) He was elected pontifex maximus 180, censor 179, with M. Fulvius Nobilior, and consul a second time 175. He was six times chosen by the censors princeps senatus, and he died in 152, full of years and honours. Judging from the strict orders which he gave to his sons to bury him in a plain and simple manner (Liv. Epit. 48), we may conclude that he belonged to that party of the Roman nobles who set their faces against the refined but extravagant habits which the Scipios and their friends were introducing into the state. Lepidus the triumvir is called by Cicero (Phil. xiii. 7) the pronepos of this Lepidus ; but he would seem more probably to have been his abnepos, or great-great-grandson. This Lepidus left several sons ; but we can hardly suppose that either the M. Lepidus Porcina, who was consul 137, or the M. Lepidus who was consul  126, were his sons, more especially as Livy mentions one of his sons, M. Lepidus (xxxvii. 43), as tribune of the soldiers in  190: the other two we may therefore look upon as his grandsons. (Polyb. xvi. 34 ; Liv. xxxi. 2, 18, xxxii. 7, xxxv. 10, 24, xxxvi. 2, xxxviii. 42, xxxix. 2, 56 ; Polyb. xxiii. 1 ; Val. Max. vi 3. § 3; Liv. xl. 42, 45, 46; Val. Max. iv. 2. § 1 ; Cic. de Prov. Cons. 9 ; Liv. Epit. 48, comp. xl. 51, xli. 27, xliii. 15, Epit. 46, 47 ; Polyb. xxxii. 22.)

The following coin of Lepidus refers to his embassy to Egypt mentioned above, and to his acting as guardian of Ptolemy V. The obverse contains a female head, intended to represent the city of Alexandria, with the legend, and the reverse Lepidus placing the diadem on the head of the king, with the legend From the fact that Lepidus is here described as pontifex maximus, and that Valerius Maximus (vi. 6. § 1), in relating his guardianship, speaks of him as pontifex maximus and twice consul, Pighius has supposed (Annal. vol. ii. p. 403) that Lepidus must have been guardian of the Ptolemies VI. and VII. ; but Eckhel (vol. v. pp. 123 — 126) has very ably refuted this opinion, and has shown that this coin was struck by one of the descendants of Lepidus, who would naturally introduce in the legend of the coin one of the distinguished offices of his ancestor, though held at a period subsequent to the event commemorated on the coin.



 8. , son probably of No. 6, consul 158, is mentioned only by Pliny (H. N. xxxiv. 6), and in the Fasti. We learn from the Fasti Capitolini that he was ; from which we perceive that he