Marcus Aemilius Lepidus - The Third Wheel of The Triumvirate

It's not easy being a third wheel. It can be uncomfortable, uneasy, frankly it can be down right awkward. However, when you happen to be playing third wheel, to the two most powerful men in an empire that stretches from the lapping waves of the Atlantic ocean to the waterless hills of Judea, it gets some what more precarious. 

Coin showing Lepidus' and his office of Pontifex Maximus

Luckily, if you're clever, you will have wrangled yourself the job of being that particular empires chief priest, the Pontifex Maximus (a title still used by the Pope today, the irony of which is lost on many modern Christians I'm sure), making yourself sacrosanct in the political arena. Fortunately for yourself, you cant "off" the chief priest, replacing him with yourself as the centre of morals and religion without raising a few eyebrows, even in the last days of the Roman republic.

Marcus Aemilius Lepidus is the oft forgotten third wheel of the Triumvitrate power sharing, brought into being to ensure peace and the continuance of the republic, a fact often promoted on their coins. 

Lepidus shows up repeatedly in the story of the late republic, however he is arguably a bit player. A supporter of Caesar's during the civil war, operating in the province of Spain against the rebel Longinus, he rose to the ultimate position of prestige alongside Caesar when he was named consul in 46BC.

"on being chosen consul for the third time, [Caesar] 

selected Lepidus as his colleague, and not Anthony"

Plutarch Life on Anthony Book 10

Lepidus remained an astute politician even after the assassination of Julius Caesar in 44BC. When ordered to aid Brutus against Mark Anthony, who was trying to take over his province of Cisalpine Gaul, he dithered, recommended negotiations and managed to not been seen supporting Mark Anthony too much, whom it seems he favoured. 

Another example of Lepidus' political acumen is told to us in Cassius Dio, who writes of how with persuasion Lepidus was able to bring Sextus Pompey and the rebelling parts of the Spanish provinces into a treaty.

"Lepidus arrived to govern the adjoining portion of Spain, and persuaded him to enter into agreement on the condition of recovering his father's estate"

Cassius Dio Book 45

In the next lines however, Cassius Dio does attribute this treaty to the workings of Mark Anthony, who was helping his friend Lepidus and trying to thwart Octavian Caesar (the future Augustus) in Rome. While this is perhaps a true indication of Mark Anthony's motivations, it does however do Lepidus a disservice. Clearly he was a good enough general that he was trusted with an army in the only major theatre of war where the civil war between the "pompeians" and the "caesarions" was still being fought. Equally, as opposed to instigating further violence, Lepidus procured a peace treaty, there by theoretically ending the civil war that had ravaged the republic. 

In fact, Lepidus seems to have been used as the face of reason by the triumvirate too. After a wave of proscriptions saw many of Rome's greatest men fall after the battle of Phillipi, (many names being bartered back and forth for the lists, this trading of one for the other the cause of the death of the great spokesman of the Republic, Cicero) Suetonius writes that it was Lepidus who addressed the Senate 

"in justification of the past and held out hope of leniency thereafter, since enough punishment had been inflicted"

Suetonius Life of Augustus Book 27

Surviving as the third wheel to two men, who are merely waiting for the other to give them justification to launch a final civil war, cannot be easy. There are indications that Lepidus might have tried earlier on to carve himself out a better position in the triumvirate.

The Via Labicana Augustus

Suetonius in Book 16 of his Life of Augustus, tells of how after aiding Octavian Caesar against the forces of Sextus Pompey, Lepidus "puffed up by confidence" and with twenty legions to his name who can blame him for being confindent, claimed "first place". Unfortunately when you're the third wheel and don't realise it, that sort of bold action doesn't usually work out well, and indeed we are told Caesar having finally found his excuse for getting rid of Lepidus stripped him of his legions, his offices (bar Pontifex Maximus) and banished him for life, essentially creating a biumvirate between himself and Mark Anthony.  

In the end surviving the tumultuous time of the Triumvirate and the fall of the republic, probably has more to do with Lepidus being Pontifex Maximus than any great political brilliance. Plutarch in his Life of Anthony on the subject of the triumvirate writes

"Anthony bore most of the blame, since he was older than Caesar, more powerful than Lepidus..."

Plutarch Life of Anthony Book 21 

Living out the remainder of his life in relative obscurity, Lepidus is a lonely figure on the field. There to ostensibly balance power between Anthony and Octavian Caesar, he never really got a chance to lace up his boots, let alone get on the pitch. Removed at the first available opportunity, he died peacefully in either 13BC or 12BC, by which I mean he wasn't executed, proscribed or died on a battle field, unlike so many of his contemporaries.

Whether Lepidus was a vital cog or an empty shirt protected by the supreme religious office of Rome, is as always, a matter of perspective. However, Suetonius in his penultimate mention of Lepidus writes of Augustus that,

"he could not make up his mind to deprive him of this honour while he lived"

Suetonius Life of Augustus Book 31

Vital cog or empty shirt? Why not leave your opinion below. 

Thanks for Reading

James