A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology

Smith, William

A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology. William Smith, LLD, ed. 1890

2. The sister of M'. Aemilius Lepidus, who was consul A. D. 11. [LEPIDUS, No. 25.] She was descended from L. Sulla and Cn. Pompey, and was at one time destined for the wife of L. Caesar, the grandson of Augustus. She was, however, subsequently married to P. Quirinus, who divorced her, and who, twenty years after the divorce, in A. D. 20, accused her of having falsely pretended to have had a son by him: at the same time she was charged with adultery, poisoning, and having consulted the Chaldaeans for the purpose of injuring the imperial family. Though she was a woman of abandoned character, her prosecution by her former husband excited much compassion among the people; but as Tiberius, notwithstanding his dissimulation, was evidently in favour of the prosecution, Lepida was condemned by the senate, and interdicted from fire and water. (Tac. Ann. 3.22, 23; Suet. Tib. 49.)