[3][4] Combining these qualities with an impeccable aristocratic birth, political skill and a reputation for bravery, Lepidus soon rose to become one of the leading Romans of his generation.

[9] At this time also, while in Alexandria, Lepidus sailed to meet personally with Philip while the king was besieging Abydus, in an attempt to persuade him to lift the siege and abandon his attacks on Pergamum and the Rhodians, who had appealed to Rome.

[10] Lepidus delivered a message from the Senate that Philip of Macedon must cease from making war on any other Greeks and agree to pay compensation to Attalus I of Pergamum and Rhodes for any damage caused.

In 193 Lepidus served as curule aedile along with his kinsman Lucius Aemilius Paullus, during which time the two Aemilii constructed two new porticoes, or arcades, in Rome, one of them being the Porticus Aemilia.

[13] Due to the ongoing war between Rome and Antiochus in the East, Lepidus was charged with the defence of the island from attack as well as ensuring that one-fifth of all the corn produced was sent to support the armies campaigning in Greece.

[14] In 190 Lepidus left Sicily early before his term as governor had expired without first asking the permission of the Senate to do so and hastened back to Rome in order to stand in the consular elections.

Following the vote, only one candidate, Marcus Fulvius Nobilior, a rival of Lepidus, had achieved the required majority, but that still meant that the other consulship was vacant.

[18] Lepidus opposed this, protesting that Nobilior and Manlius were still acting like kings in the East even though their terms had expired and yet the Senate still intended to confine both consuls to Liguria without recalling or replacing either of the two Eastern commanders.