Lucius Aemilius Paullus (consul 50 BC)
Lucius Aemilius Lepidus Paullus (flourished 1st century BC) was the brother of triumvir Marcus Aemilius Lepidus and son to an elder Marcus Aemilius Lepidus. His mother may have been a daughter of Lucius Appuleius Saturninus.
He supported Cicero during the Catiline Conspiracy and never supported Pompey. Paullus was quaestor in 59 BC, aedile in 55 BC, praetor in 53 BC and consul in 50 BC.
During his consulship, Julius Caesar bribed him for his support. He reconstructed the Basilica Aemilia in Rome, with part of his bribery money.
According to Valerius Maximus: "When the senate decreed that the temples of Isis and Serapis be demolished and none of the workmen dared touch them, consul Lucius Aemilius Paullus took off his official gown, seized an axe, and dashed it against the doors of that temple", (I, 3.3; quoting Julius Paris (translation from Loeb edition).
Paullus opposed the second triumvirate of Octavian, Mark Antony and Paullus' own brother, Marcus Lepidus. He supported Cicero in condemning its members. The triumvirs included him in their proscriptions. However, according to Cassius Dio, his brother allowed him to escape.[1] Lepidus' soldiers left him unhindered. Paullus joined the political rebel Marcus Junius Brutus the Younger and after Brutus' suicide in 42 BC, Paullus was pardoned and lived his remaining years at Miletus.
From an unnamed wife, Paullus had a son called Lucius Aemilius Lepidus Paullus. His son served as a consul in 34 BC and a colleague with Augustus in the office of censor in 22 BC.
References
- ^ Weigel, Richard D., Lepidus: the Tarnished Triumvir, Routledge, 2002, preface.