Marcus Aemilius Lepidus (6–39) was the husband of the emperor

Caligula Gaius Julius Caesar Augustus Germanicus (31 August 12 – 24 January 41), better known by his nickname Caligula (), was the third Roman emperor, ruling from 37 until his assassination in 41. He was the son of the popular Roman general Germani ...

's younger sister

Julia Drusilla Julia Drusilla (16 September AD 16 – 10 June AD 38) was a member of the Roman imperial family, the second daughter and fifth child of Germanicus and Agrippina the Elder to survive infancy. She was the favorite sister of Emperor Caligula, w ...

Biography

Some areas of his lineage are unclear. He was possibly the son of

consul Consul (abbrev. ''cos.''; Latin plural ''consules'') was the title of one of the two chief magistrates of the Roman Republic, and subsequently also an important title under the Roman Empire. The title was used in other European city-states throu ...

Lucius Aemilius Paullus. If so, he was also great-grandson of

Lucius Aemilius Lepidus Paullus Lucius Aemilius Paullus (flourished 1st century BC) was a Roman politician. He was the brother of triumvir Marcus Aemilius Lepidus and son to Marcus Aemilius Lepidus the consul of 78 BC. His mother may have been a daughter of Lucius Appuleius S ...

(consul of 50 BC and brother of the triumvir Marcus Aemilius Lepidus), and through his mother

Julia the Younger Vipsania Julia Agrippina (19 BC – c. AD 29) nicknamed Julia Minor (Classical Latin: IVLIA•MINOR) and called Julia the Younger by modern historians, was a Roman noblewoman of the Julio-Claudian dynasty. She was emperor Augustus' first grandda ...

, Lepidus was the great grandson of

Emperor An emperor (from la, imperator, via fro, empereor) is a monarch, and usually the sovereign ruler of an empire or another type of imperial realm. Empress, the female equivalent, may indicate an emperor's wife ( empress consort), mother ( ...

Augustus Caesar Augustus (born Gaius Octavius; 23 September 63 BC – 19 August AD 14), also known as Octavian, was the first Roman emperor; he reigned from 27 BC until his death in AD 14. He is known for being the founder of the Roman Pr ...

. Lepidus married Caligula's sister Drusilla sometime in November or December of 37. Ferrill (1991), p. 109 Little is known about him prior to this. Barrett (1989), p. 82 Drusilla had been married to Lucius Cassius Longinus since 33 but Caligula forced his brother-in-law to divorce Drusilla so that she could marry Lepidus. Cassius Dio and Suetonius both suggest that the emperor and his brother-in-law were lovers. The marriage lasted until Drusilla's death in June 38. They had no children. Because of this marriage, Lepidus became a close friend to Caligula and his family. After the death of Gemellus in 37, Lepidus was publicly marked by Caligula as his heir. In late 38, when the governor of Egypt

Aulus Avilius Flaccus Aulus Avilius Flaccus was a Roman eques who was appointed ''praefectus'' or governor of Roman Egypt from 33 CE to 38. His rule coincided with the riots against Alexandria's Jewish population in 38. According to some accounts, including Philo's ...

was arrested, Lepidus successfully persuaded Caligula to exile Flaccus to

Andros Andros ( el, Άνδρος, ) is the northernmost island of the Greek Cyclades archipelago, about southeast of Euboea, and about north of Tinos. It is nearly long, and its greatest breadth is . It is for the most part mountainous, with many ...

rather than Gyarus. Sometime in 39, however, Caligula made public letters by his sisters

Agrippina the Younger Julia Agrippina (6 November AD 15 – 23 March AD 59), also referred to as Agrippina the Younger, was Roman empress from 49 to 54 AD, the fourth wife and niece of Emperor Claudius. Agrippina was one of the most prominent women in the Julio-Clau ...

and

Julia Livilla Julia Livilla ( – ) was the youngest child of Germanicus and Agrippina the Elder and the youngest sister of the Emperor Caligula. Life Julia Livilla was the youngest great-granddaughter of Emperor Augustus, great-niece and adoptive grandd ...

that detailed an adulterous affair with Lepidus and a plot against the emperor. Lepidus was executed and Caligula's sisters were exiled. Agrippina was given the bones of Lepidus in an urn, and she carried them to Rome. Caligula sent three daggers to the Temple of Mars the Avenger to celebrate the death. In the

Senate A senate is a deliberative assembly, often the upper house or chamber of a bicameral legislature. The name comes from the ancient Roman Senate (Latin: ''Senatus''), so-called as an assembly of the senior (Latin: ''senex'' meaning "the el ...

Vespasian Vespasian (; la, Vespasianus ; 17 November AD 9 – 23/24 June 79) was a Roman emperor who reigned from AD 69 to 79. The fourth and last emperor who reigned in the Year of the Four Emperors, he founded the Flavian dynasty that ruled the Emp ...

made a motion that the remains of Lepidus be thrown away instead of buried. The motion was carried and Lepidus was not given a proper burial.

Cultural depictions

A sculpture of Lepidus has been found at the imperial sebasteion in

Aphrodisias Aphrodisias (; grc, Ἀφροδισιάς, Aphrodisiás) was a small ancient Greek Hellenistic city in the historic Caria cultural region of western Anatolia, Turkey. It is located near the modern village of Geyre, about east/inland from t ...

Citations

References

* Barrett, Anthony A. (1989). ''Caligula: The Corruption of Power''. New Haven: Yale University Press. . * Ferrill, Arther (1991) ''Caligula: Emperor of Rome''. New York: Thames and Hudson. . *

Philo Philo of Alexandria (; grc, Φίλων, Phílōn; he, יְדִידְיָה, Yəḏīḏyāh (Jedediah); ), also called Philo Judaeus, was a Hellenistic Jewish philosopher who lived in Alexandria, in the Roman province of Egypt. Philo's de ...

, ''Flaccus'' *

Suetonius Gaius Suetonius Tranquillus (), commonly referred to as Suetonius ( ; c. AD 69 – after AD 122), was a Roman historian who wrote during the early Imperial era The Roman Empire ( la, Imperium Romanum ; grc-gre, Βασιλεία τ� ...

, ''Life of Caligula'' * A detailed family tree of the Julio-Claudian Dynasty from the Princeton University website.
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External links

* ttps://web.archive.org/web/20140112003403/http://caligula.okdek.com/index.php?id=suetonius ''Life of Caligula'' by Suetonius (Alexander Thomson translation)br>''Flaccus'' by Philo''On Embassy to Gaius'' by Philo''Roman History'' by Cassius Dio
{{DEFAULTSORT:Aemilius Lepidus, Marcus 1st-century Romans Julio-Claudian dynasty Aemilii Lepidi Executed ancient Roman people People executed by the Roman Empire AD 6 births 39 deaths 1st-century executions

Biography

Cultural depictions

Citations

References

Further reading

External links