The first office which Lepidus is known to have held is the
praetorship;
Thomas Robert Shannon Broughton, in
Magistrates of the Roman Republic, dates this praetorship tentatively to 143 BC. In his year as praetor, he acted contrary to the
Sibylline Oracles to support a project to build an
aqueduct to bring water to the
Capitoline Hill. Lepidus was elected consul prior for 137 BC with
Gaius Hostilius Mancinus as his colleague. During his time in the city, he unsuccessfully opposed a proposal of
Lucius Cassius Longinus Ravilla, who at the time as
plebeian tribune, which would introduce
secret ballot for all popular trials – trials held before the people in an assembly – except for charges of
perduellio. After Mancinus was
defeated by the Numantines and reached a humiliating treaty with them, Mancinus' command was revoked and Lepidus was sent as replacement. Lepidus arrived in
Hispania Citerior to replace Mancinus, still during his consulship. He moved quickly to make war on the
Vaccaei, a tribe in the region likely aiding the Numantines; to aid him, he convinced his brother-in-law and governor of
Hispania Ulterior,
Decimus Junius Brutus Callaicus, to join him. They then put the Vaccaei's largest city,
Pallantia, to siege. By this time, the year had ended and Lepidus' command had been
prorogued pro consule. When the senate heard news of this, it sent a delegation to Lepidus and Brutus, chastising them for starting new wars when those which Rome was already fighting had gone so badly and decreeing that they should desist. Lepidus sent a reply saying it was too dangerous to abandon the war on the Vaccaei and continued operations. Appian, in
Wars in Spain, reports that a protracted siege that saw the Romans run out of food. The two commanders persist but eventually have to give up and retreat. The Romans then withdraw in a disorderly manner – even abandoning their sick and wounded – and are attacked on the way out, suffering heavy casualties. When news of this defeat reached Rome, the senate stripped Lepidus of his command and
imperium. When he returned to Rome as a private citizen, the senate fined him for good measure. He was the first command to ever have his promagisterial imperium abrogated by the senate. Lepidus was by 125 BC for many years an
augur (he had entered into the augurate at least by 129 BC). In that year he was prosecuted by the
censors. According to
Velleius Paterculus, he was prosecuted by both censors,
Gnaeus Servilius Caepio and
Lucius Cassius Longinus Ravilla, for extravagance in the rent of his house, for which he paid six thousand
sesterces. Caepio was one of his personal enemies. According to
Valerius Maximus, he was also punished for building his holiday home in
Alsium too high. ==Oratory==