Lepidus, having founded several cities and inaugurated an ambitious building program in Italy, is pontifex maximus from 180 onward and from 179 BCE is princeps senatus.

This same year he is also elected censor.

The Pons Aemilius is built across spanning across the Tiber to connect the Forum Boarium with Trastevere.

The oldest piers of the bridge had probably been laid in the mid-third century BCE when the Via Aurelia was constructed.

Initially constructed in 179 BCE with stone pillars and a wooden superstructure, it is regarded as the world's first stone bridge.

The bridge will be fitted in 142 BCE wholly with six stone arches but a single arch in mid-river is all that remains today, lending the bridge the name Ponte rotto ('Broken bridge').