The first office recorded for Aemilius in
Magistrates of the Roman Republic is the consulship of 282 BC, which he held with
Gaius Fabricius Luscinus as his colleague. Cicero, writing in
De Amicitia, depicts the two of them as close friends. That year, Aemilius campaigned in Etruria against the
Etruscans and the Gallic
Boii, defeating them at
Vetulonia and forcing the Gallic contingent to sue for peace. During the
Pyrrhic War he served as an envoy in 280 BC. Rome sent three envoys, Aemilius, his former consular colleague Fabricius, and the former consul of 283 BC
Publius Cornelius Dolabella. Meeting with Pyrrhus on the matter of Roman prisoners taken at the
Battle of Heraclea that year in the winter of 280/79, little is recorded as to Aemilius' activities: the sources mainly focus on Fabricius. Regardless, the negotiators were successful in having some Romans released and securing a Epirote delegation to come to Rome to see if a peaceful settlement could be reached. The specific terms of the release are not clear: sources disagree as to whether it was time-limited, conditional on an actual peace, a stratagem to plant a
fifth column, or simply an act of good faith. A couple years later, in 278 BC, Aemilius and Fabricius again served as consuls. With Pyrrhus having left southern Italy for
Sicily early in that year, the Romans retook the initiative there with Fabricius winning a
triumph that year over the
Lucanians,
Bruttians,
Tarentines, and
Samnites. Sources are however silent as to what Aemilius activities were; he was likely assigned also to southern Italy but nothing noteworthy is recorded. He may have been ambushed off the coast by Tarentine naval forces but it is not clear whether this occurred in 278 or 282. The two men served again together in the censorship of 275 BC. Fabricius is recorded that year as having expelled the consular
Publius Cornelius Rufinus (consul for the second time in 278) from the
Senate for owning extravagant silver drinking cups. It is plausible that the pair focused on
sumptuary regulations.
Valerius Maximus mentions the pair (4.4.3) as having owned silver but in an acceptable manner due to their silver dishes being religiously significant. == Family ==