7. M.AemiliusLepidus, M. F. M. N., 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. (V. Max.
3.1.1.) 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 M. LEPIDUS AN. XV. PR. H. O. C. S., that is, M. Lepidus
annorum xv. praetextatus hostem occidit, civem servavit. He was one of three ambassadors sent by the Romans in B. C.
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. 2.67; Just. 30.2, 3;
V. Max. 6.6.1); 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 B. C.
199, we must conclude that he was in Rome at that time, though he may have returned
again to Egypt. He was elected aedile B. C. 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 B. C. 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 B. C. 152, full of years and honours. Judging fron 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 (Cic. Phil. 13.7) 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 B. C. 137, or the M. Lepidus
who was consul B. C. 126, were his sons, more especially as Livy
mentions one of his sons, M. Lepidus (37.43), as tribune of the soldiers in B. C. 190: the other two we may therefore look upon as his grandsons. (Plb. 16.34; Liv. 31.2, 18, 32.7, 35.10, 24, 36.2, 38.42,
39.2, 56; Plb.
23.1; V. Max. 6.3.3; Liv.
40.42, 45, 46; V. Max. 4.2.1; Cic. de Prov. Cons. 9; Liv. Epit. 48, comp. 40.51, 41.27, 43.15, Epit.
46, 47; Plb. 32.22.)
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 ALEXANDREA, and the reverse
Lepidus placing the diadem on the head of the king, with the legend M.
LEPIDVS PONT. MAX. TVTOR REG. S. C. From the fact that Lepidus is here described as
pontifex maximus, and that Valerius Maximus (6.6.1), 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.