Agrippina the Elder and Agrippina the Younger

1. THE TWO AGRIPPINAS – THE ELDER AND THE YOUNGER
1. We have seen that LIVIA,
a) maintained an amazingly low public profile for the first 30 years of her
marriage to Augustus (that is, from 38 BC to 7 BC);
b) emerged only marginally between 7 BC and AD 4; and
c) virtually disappeared again from the public record between AD 4 and
Augustus’ death ten years later in AD 14.
2. BUT she had a more noticeable profile under her son Tiberius, as we saw
a) because of her quasi-constitutional status between AD 14 and her death in AD
29; and
b) because of her immense wealth and extensive patronage.
3. We now turn to the two AGRIPPINAs.

2. AGRIPPINA THE ELDER (mother of Agrippina the Younger)
The contrast between LIVIA and the two AGRIPPINAs could hardly be any
greater.
1. Daughter of JULIA and so granddaughter of AUGUSTUS, AGRIPPINA THE
ELDER had grown up as a member of the third generation of the new
‘imperial’ household founded by Augustus and had known no other world.
2. She was proud and touchy about her status.
3. As the only grandchild of Augustus alive or not in exile after his death, she
seems to have been determined to ensure that those of his blood-line continued
to exercise political power in the future - a determination that would, it seems,
be inherited by her daughter, the YOUNGER AGRIPPINA, too, a daughter in
whom she appears to have instilled the same ideas from childhood.

3. 4. Devoted to her husband GERMANICUS, AGRIPPINA THE ELDER broke
the established ‘rules’ and accompanied him on campaign and on more than one
occasion intervened with the troops when her husband’s leadership failed.
5. The two best known occasions are
a) when she quelled a mutiny by Roman legions on the Rhine in AD 14 by
shaming the rebel troops: she said that she would leave their camp with her
children and seek protection for her family from neighbouring tribal
peoples since she could no longer feel secure among them; and
b) when she stepped in to stop troops from destroying a bridge over the Rhine
which would have trapped other Roman forces on the east bank when they
were retreating.

4. AGRIPPINA
the ELDER
GERMANICUS
AGRIPPINA and GERMANICUS
as depicted by RUBENS in 1614

5. 6. Germanicus’ dramatic death in ‘the East’ in AD 19 and AGRIPPINA’s return
through Italy with his ashes generated huge sympathy for her and put her very
much in the public eye.
Benjamin West’s 1768
depiction of Agrippina’s
arrival at the port of
Brundisium with her
husband’s remains
The younger Agrippina
will have been about
about 4 or 5 and so may
be one of the younger
children

6. 7. With the suicide of Piso (the governor of Syria accused of Germanicus’ murder)
before the completion of his trial and the acquittal of his wife, Munatia Plancina,
(accused of the same) because of LIVIA’s intervention, AGRIPPINA (the Elder)
was convinced that TIBERIUS and his mother were now hostile to her and her
fatherless children.
8. Bitter about the death of her husband and, no doubt, about the earlier exile of her
mother (JULIA) in 2 BC and of her sister (JULIA) in AD 8, AGRIPPINA became
single-mindedly obsessed with protecting her sons’ interests and clashed more
and more with Tiberius, whose legitimacy as ruler she probably questioned.
9. Although probably protected in many ways by LIVIA until AD 29, AGRIPPINA
“isolated” herself and made herself more vulnerable in the atmosphere of back-
stabbing within the imperial house.

7. 10. i) AGRIPPINA fell foul of Tiberius’ ambitious ‘Prefect of the Praetorian
Guard’, Aelius SEJANUS, in AD 29 after Livia’s death, was arrested (along
with her eldest son Nero Caesar) and exiled to the island of Pandateria.
ii) Nero Caesar was sent to the island of Pontia where he was forced to kill
himself in AD 31.
iii) Agrippina’s second son, Drusus Caesar, was arrested in AD 30 for
“immorality”, imprisoned in Rome and starved to death.
iv) AGRIPPINA herself starved to death on Pandateria in AD 33.
v) She had probably brought about her own downfall and that of her two eldest
sons unnecessarily in her hostility to Tiberius and in her conviction that
Tiberius would not allow a son of hers to succeed him, when, in fact, her
third son, Gaius (‘Caligula’) did succeed him with his blessing.

8. 11. This was the background against which AGRIPPINA the YOUNGER grew
up, although she probably escaped some of the direct trauma at the end by her
marriage at the age of about 13 or 14 in AD 28 (the year before her mother’s
exile) to 30-year old Gnaeus Domitius Ahenobarbus (grandson of Octavia and so
great-nephew of Augustus).

9. AGRIPPINA THE ELDER
widowed in AD 19 (at the age of about 34)
exiled in AD 29 and starved to death
in AD 33 at the age of about 47

10. AGRIPPINA THE YOUNGER (AD 15 (?) – AD 59)
1. AGRIPPINA THE YOUNGER is probably best known as the ambitious
mother of NERO (‘emperor’ AD 54 – 68), but she had had a significant public
image long before her son became ‘head of state’ (as a teenager).
2. Little is known about the relationship between AGRIPPINA and her husband
DOMITIUS AHENOBARBUS – only that, after nine years of marriage, they
had a son on 15th December AD 37, LUCIUS DOMITIUS AHENOBARBUS.
3. He was through his mother a great-great grandson of Augustus and her only
child.
4. AGRIPPINA was completely devoted to him and, probably from the very
first, saw him as a vehicle to the political power that she was denied directly as a
woman.

11. AGRIPPINA
(THE YOUNGER)

12. 5. She had two sisters, JULIA DRUSILLA and JULIA LIVILLA, and her only
surviving brother, GAIUS (“Caligula”), had just become Princeps at the age of
24 upon the death of Tiberius in March AD 37 - all three of them childless so
far.
6. a) Since AGRIPPINA and her husband lived mostly at Antium on the coast
30 miles south of Rome, there may not have been a close link between
Agrippina and her brother.
b) Gaius did bestow honours on all his sisters, although he does not appear to
have felt any great affection for them, except for DRUSILLA to whom he
was devoted.
7. He had lost father, mother, and two brothers from his life long before he
became ‘emperor’ at 24 and he honoured all the members of his family (the
living and the dead) on the state’s coinage once he was head of state.

13. THE FUNERAL PROCESSION OF
AGRIPPINA THE ELDER,
LONG AFTER HER DEATH
8. In particular he honoured his mother, AGRIPPINA the ELDER, whose ashes
he brought back from Pandateria for burial in the mausoleum of Augustus

14. HIS THREE SISTERS WERE
DEPICTED SEEMINGLY
AS “GODDESSES”
(WITH HORNS OF PLENTY)

15. 9. GAIUS, ‘emperor’ since March AD 37, was devastated by the death on 10th
June AD 38 of his sister DRUSILLA, his favourite by far.
10. This may have contributed to his increasing instability.
11. Then sometime in AD 39 GAIUS’ sisters AGRIPPINA and JULIA LIVILLA
and his brother-in-law, Marcus Aemilius Lepidus, widower of DRUSILLA,
were suddenly accused of plotting to overthrow him.
12.i) His sisters were exiled to the Pontine Islands and Lepidus was executed.
ii) Whether they really were guilty of conspiracy against him, with the aim of
replacing him with Lepidus, is unclear - but distinctly possible.
iii) But something had happened within the “imperial family” which had upset
the balance and people’s future expectations – particularly those of the
ambitious AGRIPPINA.

16. 13. GAIUS (“Caligula”) had just married for the fourth time.
14. He had had no children by his first three wives, but his fourth, MILONIA
CAESONIA (who was about seven years his senior, who had already had
three daughters, and who was already pregnant by Gaius) gave him a
daughter a month after their marriage.
GAIUS with
MILONIA
CAESONIA

17. 15. i) It is not impossible that AGRIPPINA (working with her sister JULIA
LIVILLA and her brother-in-law LEPIDUS) concluded that her own hopes
for the future, especially for the future of her son, were now in jeopardy.
ii) Her brother was now married to a fecund woman and already had a
daughter.
iii) Before long he might have a son.
iv) AND (as we must never forget) there were no formal ‘rules’ about who
would succeed as the next head of state (‘emperor’): everything hinged on
manoeuvring and jockeying for position at all times by those closest to the
centre of power.
16. And so AGRIPPINA found herself sent into exile, and her son, LUCIUS,
‘disinherited’ and sent to live with his paternal aunt, Domitia Lepida.
17. She must have felt disaffected.

18. 18. i) She soon learnt that she had been widowed too.
ii) Her husband, always apparently sickly, died in January AD 40.
19. BUT her fortunes changed with the assassination of Gaius in January AD 41
when his successor CLAUDIUS (already 50) recalled both her and her sister
(they were Claudius’ nieces) from exile and restored their property to them.

19. AGRIPPINA DURING THE REIGN OF CLAUDIUS (AD 41 – 54)
1. As noted, AGRIPPINA’s son, Lucius, had gone to live with his aunt, Domitia
Lepida, but CLAUDIUS (as ‘head of state’) asked her husband, Gaius
Sallustius Crispus Passienus, to divorce her in favour of AGRIPPINA not long
after Agrippina’s return.
2. i) Crispus was a prominent man who had held the consulship twice.
ii) He was influential and he was also very wealthy.
3. It was important for AGRIPPINA to be married to someone ‘respectable’ and he
went on in his career and built his fortune significantly.
4. a) Again very little is known about the marriage of AGRIPPINA and
CRISPUS who died after six years in AD 47 possibly poisoned by
AGRIPPINA herself.
b) It was AGRIPPINA who inherited her husband’s estate.

20. 5. a) CLAUDIUS had married his third wife, VALERIA MESSALINA, when
he was in his late 40s in AD 38, three years before he became emperor (with
no expectations of becoming so).
b) She was anywhere between 27 and 30 years younger that Claudius and had
borne him a daughter, Octavia, soon after their marriage and gave birth to a
son, Britannicus, almost as soon as Claudius became ‘emperor’.
c) As “empress” and, even more important, as the mother of a son who might
succeed one day to the imperial office, MESSALINA potentially wielded an
immense of power behind the scenes because she had the power-holder’s ear.
6. Everything suggests that MESSALINA worked hard to protect her son’s
interests, allying herself with the powerful court “freedmen” (on whom
Claudius depended heavily) and gradually eliminating those who stood in her
way or who were seen by her to be in any way a threat.

21. 7. Claudius appears to have been besotted
with her and was likely manipulated by
her as she pursued her goals.
8. The hostile ancient writers depict her as
a nympo-maniac, although she may well
have just used sex as an added tool to
protect her interests and to achieve her ends.
9. But in AD 48 MESSALINA, now in her late
20s, blundered.
10. She had started to associate with Gaius
Silius, one of the two consuls-designate
for AD 49 and aged about 35.

22. 11. a) Silius may have persuaded her that a formal association with him, as a man
of influence, would provide better protection for her children than Claudius
who was aging and never in good health and might die any time – although
such an explanation for their plan has its flaws.
b) We will never know what went on behind closed doors nor what exactly
happened in AD 48 but, while Claudius was at Ostia (the port sout of Rome),
MESSALINA and SILIUS went through some sort of ‘marriage’ ceremony.
c) Only with difficulty was Claudius convinced by his freedmen that his life
was in danger.
d) He rushed back to the city; Messalina and Silius were arrested; tried; and
executed.
12. Claudius made his trusted freedmen promise never to let him marry again.

23. 13. Within months he had married his niece AGRIPPINA, although he had to gain
a dispensation from the Senate to do so since there was a prohibition of
marriage between an uncle and a niece.
14. a) AGRIPPINA had been widowed for the second time (as noted) the previous
year.
b) Given her heritage, it was probably risky to leave her unmarried.
c) It was probably equally risky to let her marry anyone of distinction – which
her status would have demanded – and so he married her himself.
15. a) Claudius had no link by blood with Augustus [he was Livia’s grandson].
b) AGRIPPINA and her son did - and, like her mother before her, she
considered it her duty to do all that she could to perpetuate the political
power of Augustus’ blood line.

24. 16. Whether she had been planning the future carefully all along we cannot say,
but once the wife of the Princeps (“First Citizen”) and ‘First Lady’ of Rome
she wasted no time in
a) eliminating rivals and those who she believed would stand in the way of
her and her son’s interests; and
b) enhancing her son’s position vis-à-vis the position of Claudius’ younger but
biological son, BRITANNICUS.
17. a) One of the people she eliminated was DOMITIA LEPIDA, her son’s
paternal aunt with whom he had spent so much time while his mother had
been in exile and with whom he had a very strong emotional bond.
b) Domitia Lepida (pathetically) was charged with practising magic and
allowing slaves to run amok.
18. AGRIPPINA had married Claudius on New Year’s Day AD 49.

25. 19. By 25th February AD 50 she had persuaded CLAUDIUS to adopt her son, who
thereupon became NERO CLAUDIUS CAESAR DRUSUS GERMANICUS.
20. In AD 50 too AGRIPPINA became “AUGUSTA” – the first since LIVIA (so
designated in Augustus’ will) to have that title, gained some sort of public role and began
to receive ambassadors.
21. In AD 51 NERO (born 15 December AD 37) took on the toga virilis [the ‘toga of
manhood’] and “came of age”.
22. In AD 53 NERO married Claudius’ daughter OCTAVIA, bringing him even
closer to the centre of power.
23. a) On 13th October AD 54 CLAUDIUS died (aged 63)
b) On 12th February AD 55 BRITANNICUS, Claudius’ natural son, died.
24. a) In neither case can murder be proved, even though the ancient writers all
claim that poison was involved and assign a role to AGRIPPINA.

26. As ‘First Lady’ and formally AVGVSTA Agrippina had begun
to appear on the state’s coinage along with Claudius, the formal
power-holder
b) Claudius is more likely to have died from some illness [or from a poisonous
(rather than a poisoned) mushroom], since that year does seem to have been one with
many deaths from illness.
c) Britannicus probably was poisoned, but a role by AGRIPPINA in this remains
in doubt.

28. AGRIPPINA AS MOTHER OF THE ‘EMPEROR’
1. NERO became the fifth Princeps (“First Citizen”) on 13th or 14th October
AD 54 just two months short of his 17th birthday.
2. There can be little doubt about who had put him there and who planned to
exercise power through him or, even, alongside him.
3. The state’s coinage quickly made this clear.

29. An aureus celebrating the deification of Claudius and depicting the young Nero
and his mother Agrippina side by side.
She is described as “AGRIPP(INA) AVG(VSTA) [wife] of the DEIFIED CLAUDIUS
and MOTHER OF NERO CAESAR”

30. If there was any doubt about to whom
Nero owed ‘the throne’, this depiction
of AGRIPPINA ‘crowning’ NERO
removed that doubt
(Aphrodisias, Turkey)

31. TWO
CONTEMPORARY
DEPICTIONS OF
AGRIPPINA

32. 4. Given Nero’s youth, his inexperience and his apparent total lack of interest in
affairs of state, the administration and decision-making was left in the very
competent hands of SENECA (a highly respected senator and man of literature),
BURRUS (the Prefect of the Praetorian Guard) and AGRIPPINA.
5. The first two worked together in admirable co-operation and offered the
Roman world excellent government in Nero’s name for at least eight years
(until AD 62).
6. AGRIPPINA did not ‘interfere’ in policy-making but does seem to have
become more and more concerned about her son’s attitude and behaviour,
trying to put pressure on him to follow her advice, particularly in his personal
relationships.

33. 7. Not wishing to see Nero’s links with Claudius weakened - since they in some
part gave credibility to his being the one to exercise the powers of the imperial
office, AGRIPPINA tried to intervene when he wanted to divorce OCTAVIA,
the daughter of Claudius.

34. 8. i) Already in AD 55, NERO, dissatisfied with his marriage to Octavia had
become involved with the former slave Acte.
ii) In this, he was encouraged by Seneca and Burrus as a way of undermining
Agrippina who disapproved of Nero’s liaison.
9. i) AGRIPPINA, despite her concern, probably would normally have waited
until the affair came to a natural end, but the relationship seems to have
been deep, at least on Acte’s part.
ii) Although by law a senator could not marry a former slave, AGRIPPINA
may have feared that Nero would exercise his power as Princeps and find a
way to marry Acte given the intensity of the relationship.
10. By the time the affair ended (and it did end), AGRIPPINA’s standing had
deteriorated in her son’s eyes and she had lost her role as his close confidante.

35. 11. i) NERO appears now to have decided to distance himself from his mother and
her strong influence over him, although she was still too powerful to be
toppled.
ii) His approach was to undermine her support at ‘court’ by attacking those who
were in her very influential circle.
iii) Perhaps the earliest and most important of Agrippina’s supporters to ‘fall’ was
the freedman Pallas who had continued to serve from the era of Claudius.
iv) Pallas, along with Agrippina, controlled to a large extent the finances of the
state - which gave him virtual control of the government.
v) His forced retirement weakened Agrippina considerably.

36. 12. Then in the late AD 50s Nero, at 20, fell for POPPAEA SABINA (wife of the
senator, Marcus Salvius Otho) who was in her later 20s.
13. Since Agrippina apparently had made it very clear earlier to her son that she
was opposed to his divorcing Octavia for any reason, it is claimed by Tacitus
that now Nero decided that he had to free himself from Agrippina’s power
over him.
14. Certainly AGRIPPINA was forced to move from the palace some time around
AD 57 because of growing tensions with Nero.
15. By AD 59 Nero was arranging for her murder, Tacitus in particular claiming that
this was at the instigation of POPPAEA.
16. But we don’t know as much as we would like about the relationship between
Nero and his mother in the last years of her life or how far Poppaea would have
been able to influence him in such a risky venture.

37. 17. Nero was still very aware that AGRIPPINA had solid support within the armed
forces and, in particular, with the Praetorian Guard, but he appears to have
been convinced that his own power depended on her total removal.
18. i) The same general story about the method Nero chose is told in Tacitus,
Suetonius, and Cassius Dio – with some of the details differing in the three
accounts.
ii) It would be sad to have to dismiss one of the most dramatic episodes in
Roman history but there are problems with what happened.
19. a) Nero first developed a plan, in conjunction with his freedman Anicetus (who
had excellent engineering skills) to have the walls and ceiling in Agrippina’s
bedroom in her villa on the Bay of Naples to collapse as she slept.
b) But this plan was abandoned as impractical.

38. 20. Next, with Anicetus (despite his having no naval skills) as commander of the
fleet at Misenum, a “collapsible boat” was designed to have Agrippina drown
while sailing.
21. i) Some of the details are difficult to fathom.
ii) The boat canopy roof of the boat did collapse when Agrippina was sailing in
the evening, but probably after the boat was deliberately rammed by a
trireme from the fleet.
iii) But AGRIPPINA, at about 44 years of age, survived by swimming, was
picked up by a boat (possibly that of local oyster fishers), and was taken to
her villa.
iv) There, now fully aware of her son’s intentions, she played for time and sent
him a note that, while injured, she had survived a serious accident.
v) Nero, terrified that she would get help from Praetorians stationed in
Misenum, sent Anicetus with two others to execute her – successfully.

39. NERO eventually married POPPAEA SABINA.
Here she is depicted on a tetradrachm from Alexandria
22. NERO divorced OCTAVIA and married POPPAEA, but not until three years
later.

40. 23. There seems to have been no serious public reaction to the death of
AGRIPPINA - whereas there were demonstrations that following his divorce of
Octavia.
24. i) AGRIPPINA had played such a dominant role in his life that is difficult to
imagine that he didn’t react strongly to his mother’s death.
ii) Tacitus says he was overwhelmed by what he had done.
iii) Certainly at least one artist (John William Waterhouse in 1878) took up the theme
with his “The Remorse of Nero after killing his Mother”.
25. AGRIPPINA had tested how far Romans in the AD 50s were willing to allow a
woman to play a role in politics: the answer was little.
26. No imperial woman followed her example for another century and a half.

41. “The Remorse of Nero after killing his Mother”
John William Waterhouse 1878