Marcus Aemilius Lepidus (consul 78 BCE)

Marcus Aemilius Lepidus was the third member of the Second Triumvirate and is chiefly remembered for being outmanoeuvred by the other two. Born around 89 BC into one of Rome's most distinguished patrician families, he was praetor in 49 BC and a supporter of Julius Caesar in the civil war, governing Nearer Spain and holding the consulship with Caesar in 46 BC. He was Caesar's magister equitum, master of the horse, and was dining with him the night before the assassination. He had a legion outside Rome in March 44 BC, which made him briefly the most powerful man in the city, and he used it to stabilise the situation rather than to seize control. Caesar's papers made him pontifex maximus. In 43 BC, holding the western provinces and seven legions, he was courted by both sides. He joined Mark Antony, and at Bononia the two met Octavian and formed the triumvirate, a legally constituted five-year dictatorship. The proscriptions that followed killed some two thousand people, including Cicero, and Lepidus is recorded as having consented to the death of his own brother. He received Africa in the division of the empire while Antony took the east and Octavian the west, and was progressively sidelined. In 36 BC he brought fourteen legions to Sicily against Sextus Pompey, then claimed the island for himself. Octavian walked into his camp, and Lepidus' troops deserted to him without a fight. He was stripped of everything except the priesthood, which was held for life, and spent his remaining twenty-four years under house arrest at Circeii. He died in 12 BC.

• Lived: 120 BCE – 77 BCE
• Nationality: Roman
• Roles: consul, rebel_leader