He is first mentioned in the elegy of his mother Cornelia's death in the same year her brother became consul.
Sometime after 13 BC, this elder Paullus married Claudia Marcella Minor, who herself was a widow with a small child.
The early career of the younger Paullus is unknown, his first and only known post being that of consul in 1 AD as the colleague of his brother-in-law, Gaius Caesar.
[5] He probably only had one child by his wife, a girl named Aemilia Lepida (4/3 BC – 53 AD), who was betrothed to Claudius until the downfall of her parents caused her great-grandfather, Augustus, to break off the betrothal and marry her to Marcus Junius Silanus Torquatus, consul in AD 19, by whom she had several children, including Junia Calvina and Marcus Junius Silanus, consul in AD 46.
[4] However, it is possible that he also had a son, Marcus Aemilius Lepidus, who was married to Caligula's favorite sister Julia Drusilla.