Arnoldas Puodenas 1 M. A emilius Lepidus 79 - 77 Nothing is known about Lepidus prior to the siege of Norba in 82BC 1 Plutarch presents him as the first man to attempt an overthrow of Sulla’s new regime, running in an election against the dictators wishes 2 Scholarship has generally depicted Marcus Aemilius Lepidus as an enemy of Sulla This has serious credibility as Lepidus (at least at first glance) attempted to : a) ban Sulla’s public funeral 3 b) overturn Sulla’s changes to the tribunate of the plebs 4 c) redistr ibute land which had been given to Sulla’s veterans 5 d) reintroduce family members of the prescribed back into Roman society 6 According to Plutarch Lepidus ran on an anti - Sulla platform , not backed by his own influence but that of Pompey 7 There are differentiating opinion on if Lepidus’ election was opposed, Rosenblitt presents evidence that it was. Philippus in his speech to the Senate accused Lepidus of electoral bribery funded by his misgovernment of Sicily 8 Why was bribery required if there we re no other candidates? Syme in contrast to Ronseblitt argues that there were only two candidates via a careful reading of Plutarch H e argues it is possible to imply there were only two candidates as Sulla reprimands Pompey not on getting Lepidu s elected, but rather allowing him to come before Catulus in the election 9 The evidence is quite unsatisfactory in either camp. Philippus speech found in Sallust ’ s fragments can be readily dismissed as denunciatory gossip , this is after all the speech which moved the Senate to pass the s enatus consultum ultimum and branded Lepidus as hostis 10 Cicero openly states that Lepidus did not rob the people of Sicily, a point which Rosenblitt chooses to ignore 11 Was Lepidus’ allowed to run in 77 due to his Sullan ties, or was there a serious lack of candidates? Lepidus came from a family which could boast of a Consular parent, one of only three between 78 - 49BC 12 . Syme argues it would be foolish to assume that anyone could 1 App. BC 1.94 2 Plut. Sull. 34.4 - 5 3 Plut. Sull. 38.1 4 Livy. The Periochae . 90.2 ; Sall . Hist. 1.7 7.14 : Restoration of the tribunate of the plebs is one of the demands Lepidus issues from Etruria. 5 Criniti, 1968 Iulius Ex s uperantius opusculum , 35: (4 th century) produced a summary of Sallust’s work ( influenced by Livy ) . Presents events as conservatives vs radicals. “ ... he collected a large army, by promising to restore their ancestral property, if they were victorious. ” 6 Gruen, 1968 pp 275 7 See footnote 2 8 Rosenblitt, pp 428 9 Syme, pp104 10 Iulius Ex s uperantius , 35 : F ragments have been translated by N.Zorzetti from the Latin. 11 Cic. Ver. 2.3.212 12 Syme, pp 100 Arnoldas Puodenas 2 have gained the highest office in the republic without the backing of Sulla, and it is a solid argument 13 We know, for instance, t hat a serious decline in the patrician gentes took place following the series of bloody civil wars of Marius and Sulla. A study in 1969 showed a massive decline, out of 138 gentes inscriptions found in the republican age only 20 were still in use by 82 14 A n argument can be made that Lepidus was not Sulla ’ s first pick, but due to the drought of capable candidates their differences were overlooked. Even though Sulla had given his power up, his auctoritas was still unquestionable. Although a small number of academics argue that Lepidus was an anti - Sullan from the beginning 15 , it is difficult getting around Syme’s argument. Sulla had total pow er over life and death, he purged the Roman Senate of his enemies and installed officials aligned to him. What chance would a candidate hostile to Sulla have in this environment? Most scholars argue that the first great schism between Sulla and Lepidus cam e after Sulla’s death in 78 In large part this is due to Syme’s point ; with Sulla dead , open hostility against his policies could begi n in theory. 13 Syme, pp 93 14 Santangelo pp 141 : Uses Degassi’s 1969, 1971 studies of the Colombella necropolis 15 K eaveney , pp 186 - 8 : Argument states that Sulla was a true republican and wished to reform the state to preserve it , Lepidus came along near Sulla’s death when his authority had slipped Arnoldas Puodenas 3 Bibliography K eaveney , A. “Sulla the Last Republican”, Routledge , (2005) Burton, P . “THE REVOLT OF LEPIDUS (COS. 78 BC) REVISITED.” Historia: Zeitschrift Für Alte Geschichte, vol. 63, no. 4, Franz Steiner Verlag, 2014, pp. 404 – 21 , CRINITI, N. Le concordan ze di Iulius Ex(s)uperantius (Mem. Istituto lombardo, classe di lettere, scienze morali e storiche, 30, I). Milan: Istituto Lombardo, 1968. Pp. 82. Gruen, E. S. "Roman Politics and the Criminal Courts, 149 - 78 B.C.”, Harvard University Press, Cambridge (196 6) Livy. Schlesinger , A (tr.). “ History of Rome, Volume XIV: Summaries. Fragments. ”, Loeb Classical Library (1989) Rosenblitt , A . “The Turning Tide: The Politics of the Year 79 B.C.E.” Transactions of the American Philological Association (1974 - 2014), vol. 144, no. 2, [The Johns Hopkins University Press, American Philological Association], 2014, pp. 415 – 44, Sallust. Ramsey , J. T. (tr.). “ Fragments of the Histories. Letters to Caesar ”, Loeb Classical Library , (2014) Santangelo, F. “The Impact of Sulla on Italy and the Mediterranean World”, PhD Thesis, University College London (2006) Syme, R. Santangelo, F (ed). “ Approaching the Roman Revolution ” , Oxford University Press, Oxford (2016) Plutarch. Waterfield , R. 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