Aemilia Lepida
name of several Roman women belonging to the gens Aemilia
Aemilia Lepida is a Latin feminine given name that was given to the daughters of various Aemilius Lepiduses (Aemilii Lepidi), men belonging to the Lepidus branch of the Aemilia gens (family) that was founded by the Marcus Aemilius Lepidus who served as consul in 285 BC. The Aemila Lepidas (Aemiliae Lepidae) who appear in Roman historians were principally known for their engagements and marriages, with those in the late Republic and early Empire related to the Julio-Claudian dynasty.
Aemilia Lepida (1st century BC), wife of Metellus Scipio
This Aemilia was daughter of Mamercus Aemilius Lepidus Livianus, wife of Metellus Scipio and former fiancée of Cato. Her daughter was Cornelia Metella, last wife and widow of Pompey the Great. Although Aemilia Lepida was engaged to be married to Cato the Younger, she in fact married someone else, leaving Cato to marry Atilia. In the words of Plutarch:
When [Cato] thought that he was old enough to marry — and up to that time he had consorted with no woman — he engaged himself to Lepida, who had formerly been betrothed to Metellus Scipio, but was now free, since Scipio had rejected her and the betrothal had been broken. However, before the marriage Scipio changed his mind again, and by dint of every effort got the maid. Cato was greatly exasperated and inflamed by this, and attempted to go to law about it; but his friends prevented this, and so, in his rage and youthful fervour, he betook himself to iambic verse, and heaped much scornful abuse upon Scipio, adopting the bitter tone of Archilochus, but avoiding his license and puerility. Lepida and Cato were first cousins with Lepida's father and Cato's mother being blood siblings.
Aemilia Lepida, wife of Domitius Ahenobarbus
Aemilia Lepida may have been the name of the wife of Gnaeus Domitius Ahenobarbus (consul 32 BC), due to the name of Ahenobarbus's granddaughters, Domitia Lepida the Elder and Domitia Lepida the Younger. Her only child was her son Lucius Domitius Ahenobarbus (consul 16 BC).
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This entry incorporates text from “Aemilia Lepida” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.