Marcus Aemilius Lepidus was a Roman general and statesman who formed the Second Triumvirate alongside Octavian and Mark Antony during the final years of the Roman Republic. Lepidus had previously been a close ally of Julius Caesar. He was also the last pontifex maximus before the Roman Empire, and (presumably) the last interrex and magister equitum to hold military command.
Denarius of 42 BC depicting Lepidus, age about 57. The inscription is III vir rei publicae c(onstituendae) Lepidus pont(ifex) max(imus), meaning "triumvir for the regulation of the republic, Lepidus, Pontifex Maximus".
Aureus of Lepidus, c. 42 BC
Lepidus (right) browbeaten by Antony and Octavian. Illustration to Shakespeare's Julius Caesar by H. C. Selous.
In modern historiography, ancient Rome encompasses the founding of the Italian city of Rome in the 8th century BC, the Roman Kingdom, Roman Republic, Roman Empire, and the collapse of the Western Roman Empire in the 5th century AD.
The Capitoline Wolf, now illustrating the legend that a she-wolf suckled Romulus and Remus after their mother's imprisonment in Alba Longa
Etruscan painting of dancer and musicians from the Tomb of the Leopards in Tarquinia
The Capitoline Brutus, a bust traditionally identified as L. Junius Brutus, one of the founders of the Republic
The Roman siege of the Celtiberian stronghold of Numantia in Spain in 133 BC
