19. PAULUS AEMILIUS LEPIDUS, L. F. M. N., the son of L. Aemilius Paullus [No. 16], with whom he is frequently confounded. His name is variously given by the ancient writers Aemilius Paullus, or Paullus Aemilius, or Aemilius Lepidus Paullus, but Paullus Aemilius Lepidus seems to be the more correct form. He probably fled with his father to Brutus, and seems to have been entrusted by the latter with the defence of Crete; for we find him after the death of Brutus joining the remnants of the republican party with the Cretan troops, and sailing with them into the Ionian sea. He must subsequently have made his peace with the triumvirs, as we find him accompanying Octavian in his campaign against Sex. Pompey in Sicily in B. C. 36. In B. C. 34 he obtained the consulship, but only as consul suffectus, on the 1st of July, and dedicated the basilica Aemilia, which had been originally erected by his father [see p. 766], but which he had rebuilt. In B. C. 22 he was censor with L. Munatius Plancus, with whom he could not agree, and died while holding this dignity. Dio Cassius seems to have confounded him with his father in saying that the censor had been formerly proscribed; it is not impossible, however, that the son may have been proscribed along with his father, although no other writer mentions the fact. (Appian, App. BC 5.2; Suet. Octav. 16 D. C. 49.42, 54.2; Vell. 2.95 Propert. 4.11. 67.)
The wife of Paullus Aemilius Lepidus was Cornelia, the daughter of Cornelius Scipio and of Scribonia, who was subsequently the wife of Augustus. She was thus the step-daughter of Augustus, and her family became still more closely connected with the imperial house by the marriage of one of her sons, L. Aemilius Paullus [No. 22], to a daughter of Julia, who was her half-sister, being the daughter of Augustus and Scribonia. There is an elegy of Propertius (4.11), in which Cornelia is represented as consoling her husband Paullus on account of her death. She there speaks of having died in the consulship of her brother (4.11. 65), who is supposed to have been the P. Cornelius Scipio who was consul in B. C. 16. Thus a contradiction arises between Velleius Paterculus (2.95) and Dio Cassius (54.2) on the one hand, and Propertius on the other, as the two former writers say that Paullus died during his censorship. Perhaps, however, the brother of Cornelia may not have been the consul of B. C. 16, but one of the consuls suffecti, not mentioned in the Fasti. Paullus had by Cornelia three children, two sons and a daughter [Nos. 22, 23, 24], to all of whom Propertius alludes. The daughter was born in the censorship of her father (Propert. 4.11. 67), and if Paullus really died in his censorship there could have been only a very short interval between his wife's death and his own. The annexed coin probably has reference to this Paullus Aemilius Lepidus: it has on the obverse the head of Concordia with PAVLLVS LEPIDVS CONCORDIA, and on the reverse a trophy with several figures, and the words TER PAVLLVS. The reverse refers to the victory of the celebrated L. Aemilius Paullus over Perseus: on the right hand of the trophy stands Aemilius Paullus himself, and on the left Perseus and his two sons. Ter may refer to his triumph lasting three days, or to his having enjoyed three different triumphs. (Comp. Eckhel, vol. v. pp. 130, 131.)
There is another coin of Paullus Aemilius Lepidus, with the same obverse as the one given above, but with the reverse representing the Scribonian puteal, which we find on the coins of the Scribonian gens [see LIBO], and with the legend PVTEAL SCRIBON. LIBO. This emblem of the Scribonia gens was used on account of the wife of Paullus being the daughter of Scribonia, who had then become the wife of Augustus, as is stated above.