Marianne Bonnefond-Coudry, Le princeps senatus : vie et mort d'une institution républicaine, p. 103-134.
Choisi selon des critères qui visaient à garantir sa dignité éminente et à faire de sa personne une incarnation du Sénat des origines, le princeps senatus était une figure emblématique de la République, dont le rôle, débordant le cadre du Sénat, consistait à maintenir la concorde civile.
Bien que l'aggravation des conflits intérieurs, à partir des Gracques, ait rendu cette mission impossible, et provoqué l'affaiblissement, puis la disparition spontanée de l'institution après Sylla, l'image prestigieuse du princeps senatus est demeurée si vivace dans les esprits qu'Octave, dans la brève période de tâtonnements qui suit la fin de la guerre civile, revêt à nouveau ce titre, avant de lui trouver un substitut original avec celui d'Augustus. Il ne connaîtra plus, dès lors, que quelques résurrections éphémères, sous une forme dénaturée.
1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Lepidus
LEPIDUS, the name of a Roman patrician family in the Aemilian gens. 1. Marcus Aemilius Lepidus, one of the three ambassadors sent to Egypt in 201 B.C. as guardians of the infant king Ptolemy V. He was consul in 187 and 175, censor 179, pontifex maximus from 180 onwards, and was six times chosen by the censors princeps senatus. He died in 152. He distinguished himself in the war with Antiochus III. of Syria, and against the Ligurians. He made the Via Aemilia from Ariminum to Placentia, and led colonies to Mutina and Parma. Livy xl. 42-46, epit. 48; Polybius xvi. 34. 2. Marcus Aemilius Lepidus, surnamed Porcina (probably from his personal appearance), consul 137 B.C. Being sent to Spain to conduct the Numantine war, he began against the will of the senate to attack the Vaccaei. This enterprise was so unsuccessful that he was deprived of his command in 136 and condemned to pay a fine. He was among the greatest of the earlier Roman orators, and Cicero praises him for having introduced the well-constructed sentence and even flow of language from Greek into Roman oratory. Cicero, Brutus, 25, 27, 86, 97; Vell. Pat. ii. 10; Appian, Hisp.
Abstract:The starting point of this chapter is Ennius's line, cited in oratio obliqua at Livy 30.26.9. Most attention is given to Livy Book 22, where Fabius, with his policy of attrition, avoiding pitched battles and a repeat of the defeats of the opening years of the Hannibalic War, is the dominant figure, contrasted with C. Flaminius, killed in the battle at Lake Trasimene in 217 B.C.E., M. Minucius Rufus, magister equitum during Fabius's dictatorship following the defeat at Trasimene, and C. Terentius Varro, consul in 216 and in command when Rome suffered the disastrous defeat at Cannae. In chapter 39, Livy puts a lengthy speech into Fabius's mouth, addressed to L. Aemilius Paullus, Varro's colleague, justifying his strategy. Fabius's role during the rest of the war is treated more briefly: his consulships in 215, 214, and 209, when he recaptured Tarentum, his appointment as princeps senatus by the censors in both 209 and 204, his attempt to reconcile C. Claudius Nero and M. Livius Salinator, elected consuls for 207 and his urging of caution on Livius. Livy reports three caustic remarks by Fabius, perhaps a genuine trait. At the end of Book 28, Fabius is given another lengthy speech, opposing Scipio's plan to invade Africa and take the war to Carthage, and in Book 29, following the Locrian ambassadors' speech detailing the behavior of Q. Pleminius, he proposed that Pleminius be brought to Rome in chains and Scipio recalled from Sicily. Finally, the views of Jackie Elliott and Philip Hardie, respectively, that Ennius's line was a central motif in Livy Book 22 and that chapter 39 was an oratorical version of it are criticized.
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