Lepidus

Lepidus was the son of Marcus Aemilius Lepidus (consul in 78 BC); his mother may have been a daughter of Lucius Appuleius Saturninus. His brother was Lucius Aemilius Lepidus Paullus (consul in 50). His father was the first leader of the revived populares faction after the death of Sulla, and led an unsuccessful rebellion against the optimates in 78–77 (he was defeated just outside of Rome and fled to Sardinia where he died in 77). Lepidus married Junia Secunda, half-sister of Marcus Junius Brutus and sister of Marcus Junius Silanus, Junia Prima and Junia Tertia, Cassius Longinus's wife. Lepidus and Junia Secunda had at least one child, Marcus Aemilius Lepidus the Younger. ==Biography==

Ally of Caesar . Lepidus joined the College of Pontiffs as a child. He started his cursus honorum as triumvir monetalis, overseeing the minting of coins, from c. 62 to 58 BC. Lepidus soon became one of Julius Caesar's greatest supporters. He was appointed as a praetor in 49 BC, being placed in charge of Rome while Caesar defeated Pompey in Greece. He secured Caesar's appointment as dictator, a position that Caesar used to get himself elected as consul, resigning the dictatorship after eleven days. Lepidus was rewarded with the position of propraetor in the Spanish province of Hispania Citerior. Lepidus was also nominated interrex by the Senate in 52, being the last known Roman to hold this office. In Spain, Lepidus was called upon to quell a rebellion against Quintus Cassius Longinus, governor of neighbouring Hispania Ulterior. Lepidus refused to support Cassius, who had created opposition to Caesar's regime by his corruption and avarice. He negotiated a deal with the rebel leader, the quaestor Marcellus, and helped to defeat an attack by the Mauretanian king Bogud. Cassius and his supporters were allowed to leave and order was restored. Caesar and the Senate were sufficiently impressed by Lepidus's judicious mixture of negotiation and surgical military action that they granted him a triumph. Lepidus was rewarded with the consulship in 46 after the defeat of the Pompeians in the East. Caesar also made Lepidus magister equitum ("Master of the Horse"), effectively his deputy. Caesar appears to have had greater confidence in Lepidus than in Mark Antony to keep order in Rome, after Antony's inflammatory actions led to disturbances in 47. Lepidus appears to have been genuinely shocked when Antony provocatively offered Caesar a crown at the Lupercalia festival, an act that helped to precipitate the conspiracy to kill Caesar. When in February 44 Caesar was elected dictator for life by the Senate, he made Lepidus magister equitum for the second time. Aftermath of Caesar's death As soon as Lepidus learned of Caesar's murder, he acted decisively to maintain order by moving troops to the Campus Martius. He proposed using his army to punish Caesar's killers, but was dissuaded by Antony and Aulus Hirtius. Lepidus and Antony both spoke in the senate the following day, accepting an amnesty for the assassins in return for preservation of their offices and Caesar's reforms. Lepidus also obtained the post of pontifex maximus, succeeding Caesar. At this point, Pompey's surviving son Sextus Pompey tried to take advantage of the turmoil to threaten Spain. Lepidus was sent to negotiate with him. Lepidus successfully negotiated an agreement with Sextus that maintained the peace. The Senate voted him a public thanksgiving festival. Lepidus thereafter administered both Hispania and Narbonese Gaul as proconsul. When Antony attempted to take control of Cisalpine Gaul (northern Italy) by force and to displace Decimus Brutus, the Senate, led by Cicero, called on Lepidus to support Brutus – one of Caesar's killers. Lepidus prevaricated, recommending negotiation with Antony. After Antony's defeat at the Battle of Mutina, the Senate sent word that Lepidus' troops were no longer needed. Antony, however, marched towards Lepidus's province with his remaining forces. Lepidus continued to assure the Senate of his loyalty, but engaged in negotiations with Antony. When the two armies met, large portions of Lepidus's forces joined up with Antony. Lepidus negotiated an agreement with him, while claiming to the Senate that he had no choice. It is unclear whether Lepidus' troops forced him to join with Antony, whether that was always Lepidus's plan, or whether he arranged matters to gauge the situation and make the best deal. Second Triumvirate Antony and Lepidus now had to deal with Octavian Caesar, Caesar's great-nephew, who had been adopted by Caesar in Caesar's will. Octavian was the only surviving commander of the forces that had defeated Antony at Mutina (modern Modena). The Senate instructed Octavian to hand over control of the troops to Decimus Brutus, but he refused. Antony and Lepidus met with Octavian on an island in a river, possibly near Mutina, but more likely near Bologna. Their armies lined along opposite banks. They formed the Second Triumvirate, legalized with the name of Triumvirs for Confirming the Republic with Consular Power (Triumviri Rei Publicae Constituendae Consulari Potestate) by the Lex Titia of 43. With the triumvirs in possession of overwhelming numerical superiority, Decimus Brutus' remaining forces melted away, leaving the triumvirs in complete control of the western provinces. Unlike the First Triumvirate of Caesar, Pompey, and Crassus, this one was formally constituted. In effect, it sidelined the consuls and the Senate and signalled the death of the Republic. He asserted that Sicily should be absorbed into his sphere of influence. After negotiation, he suggested an alternative: Octavian could have Sicily and Africa, if he agreed to give Lepidus back his old territories in Spain and Gaul, which should legally have been his according to the Lex Titia. Spending the rest of his life in relative obscurity, Lepidus was apparently obliged to return to Rome periodically to participate in Senate business. Octavian, now known as "Augustus", is said to have belittled him by always asking for his vote last. Lepidus died peacefully in late 13 BC, upon which Augustus was elected to the position of Pontifex Maximus on 6 March 12 BC; afterwards, the chief priest's office was moved from the Regia to Augustus' palace, located on the Palatine Hill in Rome. ==Reputation==

. Lepidus's biographer Richard D. Weigel says that he has been typically caricatured by both ancient and modern historians as "weak, indecisive, fickle, disloyal and incompetent". According to Cassius Dio, while Mark Antony and Octavian were away from Rome fighting Brutus and Cassius, Lepidus was nominally in control of the city, but Mark Antony's wife, Fulvia, was the real power. Dio wrote, "She, the mother-in‑law of Octavian and wife of Antony, had no respect for Lepidus because of his slothfulness, and managed affairs herself, so that neither the senate nor the people transacted any business contrary to her pleasure". Such views are reflected in Shakespeare's portrayal of Lepidus in Julius Caesar in which Antony describes him as "a slight, unmeritable man, meant to be sent on errands", comparable to a donkey required to bear burdens. In Antony and Cleopatra he is portrayed as extremely gullible, asking Antony silly questions about Egypt while very drunk. Antony taunts him with an elaborately nonsensical description of a Nile crocodile. After Lepidus's fall from power, he is referred to as the "poor third" and "fool Lepidius". Modern writers have often been equally dismissive. Ronald Syme called him "a flimsy character...perfidious and despised". Alain Gowing has also argued that his actions in Sicily, though "futile", were no more than an "attempt to regain a position from which he had been unfairly thrust". ==Fictional depictions==

Despite his role as "a slight, unmeritable man" in Shakespeare's Julius Caesar and as a rambling drunk in Antony and Cleopatra, other Renaissance-era writers portrayed Lepidus in a more positive way. Caspar Brülow's Latin play Caius Julius Caesar depicts Lepidus as Caesar's loyal ally, warning him against conspiracies and later planning revenge on his killers. Georges de Scudéry's La Mort de César portrays him in a similar light, warning Caesar, and later working closely with Antony, who refers to him as "sage et prudent Lépide". In Pierre Corneille's Mort de Pompée his is a non-speaking role, simply presented as one of Caesar's entourage of officers. Lepidus appears in several 18th century French plays, such as Prosper Jolyot de Crébillon's Le Triumvirat, ou la mort de Cicéron, in which he attempts to save Cicero's life, and is portrayed as a conflicted figure, who respects traditional Roman values, but is unable to resist the will of his colleagues. Cicero rejects compromise, but Lepidus is too weak to do so. Voltaire's Le Triumvirat refers to Lepidus as a pawn, merely used by Antony and Octavian. Lepidus appears in a number of novels. He is the principal character of Alfred Duggan's 1958 historical novel ''Three's Company''. As the novel's title implies, it is centered on the second triumvirate, but relates the period through the lens of Lepidus' life and experiences. According to Weigel, he becomes a kind of "a Don Quixote in a toga". The novel follows the standard portrayal of him as "cowardly, stupid, shying away from combat, dominated by women, and longing for someone to give him orders". He is portrayed as a more competent figure in W. G. Hardy's The Scarlet Mantle and The Bloodied Toga. In Allan Massie's Let the Emperor Speak, he is a weasely politician. He is also mentioned in Robert Harris' Dictator, told from the perspective of Cicero's secretary Tiro. In the BBC/HBO TV series Rome, Lepidus (Ronan Vibert) is portrayed in the familiar way, as an inadequate rival for the powerhouses of Octavian and Antony. Much of his involvement in the second Triumvirate is barely mentioned in the series. No mention is made of his alliance with Antony and Caesar before the assassination. He is depicted as a general sent to defeat the weakened Antony after Mutina. His whole army immediately defects to his enemy. He appears sporadically as a barely-noticed participant in later discussions about future plans. ==References==