Subsequent generations have not been kind to Lepidus, who with the benefit of hindsight seems weak-willed and outclassed. As with so many of his contemporaries, Victorian scholars and their successors often simply dismissed Lepidus as a member of a sort of second class of statesmen, those who were not Great Men and therefore not worth as much time. Lepidus is generally written off as being "outclassed" by his two rivals, as if we should be easy on the poor fellow for not becoming a Great Man like the other two triumvirs. Whether we should place Lepidus at the same level as Octavian and Antony or not, what's quite clear is that Lepidus' reputation--and his misfortune in his later career--derives pretty much entirely from a single mistake he made, namely failing to participate at Philippi. The Triumvirate was formed in 43 by a lex Titia and granted the three members proconsular provincial authority for five years and consular authority within the city. It was renewed later, until it finally lapsed in 33. Lepidus was instrumental in the formation of the Triumvirate in the first place. In his praetorship he had presided over the vote to confer upon Caesar his first dictatorship, after which he received proconsular appointments in Iberia, followed by the consulship in 46. He was Caesar's magister equitum from 46 to 44, during which time Antony had fallen from Caesar's good graces following his disastrous handling of the Dolabella situation. In the immediate aftermath of Caesar's murder Lepidus and Antony were the two leading Caesarians left standing, and together they swung into gear pretty impressively. On March 16 Lepidus marched his troops into the city and was preparing an assault on the Capitoline where the conspirators had barricaded themselves, before Antony stopped him and successfully negotiated with the senate to pardon the conspirators on the condition that all Caesar's legislation was to be confirmed. Antony's about-face several days later, on March 20, that drove the conspirators out of the city had little to do with Lepidus, who returned to his province until 43, when he aided Antony at Mutina. It was Lepidus that reached out to Octavian after the death of the consuls at Mutina, and it was Lepidus along with Antony who actually led the proscriptions. Lepidus, however, erred fatally when he agreed to remain at Rome while the others went to Philippi. The influence that Philippi had on the subsequent history of the Triumvirs is hard to understate. Philippi, apart from being the most titanic battle the Romans had ever known, firmly did away with any possibility for a Republican restitution and resulted in the division of provincial authority between the Triumvirs, increasing the political tension between them for about a decade as they went about consolidating what were, for all intents and purposes, private kingdoms. The victors of Philippi--and especially Antony, who had done most of the work--got a major bragging point and were remembered by the veterans whom they settled, some of which had originally been Lepidus' men but whom he had traded over to the other two. The blunder of not going to Philippi is understandable--somebody needed to stay in Rome, and Philippi was, to quote Wellington, "the nearest run thing you ever saw in your life," and it was hardly a foregone conclusion that the Caesarians would be so triumphant there--but it was a blunder nonetheless. In the subsequent division of provincial spoils Lepidus suffered heavily, being stripped of the two provinces (Narbonese Gaul and Nearer Spain) that he already controlled (he would later be given Africa) while Octavian and Antony sailed the Philippan wind to greater and bolder things. Lepidus was never able to recover fully from this error, although he tried during the campaign against Sex. Pompey, and ultimately he was forced from the Triumvirate. But in 43 I think one could hardly say that Lepidus appeared any weaker than his colleagues. Lepidus had consistently remained in Caesar's good graces, unlike Antony, and had an excellent track record under the dictatorship, being elevated to the status of magister equitum and controlling fully two provinces. And whereas Octavian was, though clearly brilliant, untried and still very young, few Caesarians had as much experience as Lepidus. While subsequent events make Lepidus' later career seem doomed, and perhaps not without reason, it's not too hard to imagine what might have happened if Lepidus had gone to Philippi and either Antony or Octavian had taken the consulship of 42.