1. AGRIPPINA THE YOUNGER (born ca AD 15) 1. AGRIPPINA THE YOUNGER is, perhaps, 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. She was the daughter of AGRIPPINA THE ELDER and GERMANICUS (the nephew of TIBERIUS) and a great-granddaughter of AUGUSTUS. 3. In many ways she was like her mother in character, temperament and attitude. AGRIPPINA THE ELDER 1. Daughter of JULIA and granddaughter of AUGUSTUS she had grown up as a member of the third generation of the new ‘imperial’ household and had known no other world. 2. She was proud and touchy about her status.

2. 3. As the only grandchild of Augustus alive or not in exile after his death, she was determined to ensure that those of his blood-line continued to exercise political power in the future - a determination inherited by her daughter, the younger AGRIPPINA whom she indoctrinated with this idea from childhood. 4. Devoted to her husband GERMANICUS, she 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 peoples since she could no longer feel secure among them; and

3. b) when she stepped in to stop troops from destroying a bridge over the Rhine which would have trapped Roman forces on the east bank when they were retreating. AGRIPPINA I GERMANICUS AGRIPPINA and GERMANICUS as depicted by RUBENS in 1614

4. 6. Germanicus’ death in ‘the East’ in AD 19 and Agrippina’s return to 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

5. 7. With the suicide of Piso (the governor of Syria) before he could be brought to trial for causing Germanicus’ death and the acquittal of his wife, Munatia Plancina, because of LIVIA’s intervention, AGRIPPINA (the Elder) was convinced that TIBERIUS and his mother were hostile to her and her fatherless children. 8. Bitter about the death of her husband and the earlier exile of her mother (JULIA) in 2 BC and 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 by LIVIA until AD 29, AGRIPPINA isolated herself and made herself more vulnerable in the atmosphere of back-stabbing in the imperial house.

6. 10. i) AGRIPPINA (the Elder) fell foul of Tiberius’ ‘Prefect of the Praetorian Guard’, Aelius SEJANUS, after Livia’s death in AD 29, was arrested (along with her eldest son Nero Caesar) and exiled to the island of Pandateria. ii) Nero was exiled 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, imprisoned in Rome and starved to death. iv) Agrippina herself starved to death on Pandateria in AD 33. 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).

7. AGRIPPINA THE YOUNGER ( AD 15 (?) – AD 59) 1. 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 15 th December AD 37, LUCIUS DOMITIUS AHENOBARBUS. 2. He was through his mother a great-great grandson of Augustus and her only child. 3. AGRIPPINA was completely devoted to him and, probably from the very first, saw him as a vehicle to the political power she was denied directly as a woman. 4. 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.

8. AGRIPPINA (THE YOUNGER)

9. 5. i) 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. ii) Gaius did bestow honours on all his sisters but does not appear to have felt any great affection for them, other than for DRUSILLA to whom he was devoted. iii) But GAIUS (who had lost father, mother, and two brothers from his life long before he became ‘emperor’ at 24) did depict them on the state’s coinage - as he did all his dead family members, honouring, in particular, his mother, AGRIPPINA the ELDER, whose ashes he brought back from Pandateria for burial in the mausoleum of Augustus.

10. GAIUS (“CALIGULA”) HONOURED HIS MOTHER, AGRIPPINA THE ELDER, AFTER HER DEATH HIS THREE SISTERS WERE DEPICTED ON COINS, PERHAPS AS “GODDESSES”

11. 6. GAIUS, ‘emperor’ since March AD 37, was devastated by the death on 10 th June AD 38 of his sister DRUSILLA, his favourite by far. 7. This may have contributed to his increasing instability. 8. 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. 9. 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.

12. 10. GAIUS (“Caligula”) had just married for the fourth time. 11. 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.

13. 12. 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. 13. And so AGRIPPINA found herself sent into exile, her son, LUCIUS, ‘disinherited’ and sent to live with his paternal aunt, Domitia Lepida.

14. 14. i) Agrippina soon learnt that she had been widowed too. ii) Her husband, always apparently sickly, died in January AD 40. 15. BUT her fortunes changed after 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. 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 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 wealthy.

15. 3. Again very little is known about the marriage of AGRIPPINA and CRISPUS who died after six years in AD 47, leaving her son, Lucius, a fortune. 4. Generally AGRIPPINA appears to have maintained a very low profile for the first part of her uncle’s ‘reign’. 5. i) CLAUDIUS had married his third wife, VALERIA MESSALINA, when he was in his late 40s in AD 38, three years before he became emperor. ii) She was anywhere between 27 and 30 years his junior but had borne him a daughter, Octavia, soon after their marriage and gave birth to a son, Britannicus, almost as soon as Claudius became ‘emperor’. iii) 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 because she had the power-holder’s ear.

16. 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. 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 used sex to protect her interests and to achieve her ends.

17. 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. 11. i) He 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. ii) 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 to Rome), MESSALINA and SILIUS went through some sort of marriage ceremony. iii) Only with difficulty was Claudius convinced by his freedmen that his life was in danger. iv) He rushed back to the city; Messalina and Silius were arrested; tried; and executed.

18. 12. Claudius made his trusted freedmen promise never to let him to marry again. 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. i) AGRIPPINA had been widowed for the second time (as noted) in AD 47. ii) Given her heritage, it was probably risky to leave her unmarried. iii) 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.

19. 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 who, as yet, had no ‘constitutional’ or ‘pseudo-constitutional’ authority 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. i) 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. ii) Domitia Lepida (pathetically ) was charged with practising magic and allowing slaves to run amok.

20. 18. AGRIPPINA had married Claudius on New Year’s Day AD 49. 19. By 25 th February AD 50 she had persuaded CLAUDIUS to adopt her son, who 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 - 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 13 th October AD 54 CLAUDIUS died (aged 63) b) On 12 th February AD 55 BRITANNICUS, Claudius’ natural son, died. 24. i) In neither case can murder be proved, even though the ancient writers all claim that poison was involved and assign a role to AGRIPPINA.

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

23. AGRIPPINA AS MOTHER OF THE ‘EMPEROR’ 1. NERO became the fifth Princeps (“First Citizen”) on 13 th or 14 th October AD 54 just two months short of his 17 th 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.

24. 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”

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

26. TWO CONTEMPORARY DEPICTIONS OF AGRIPPINA

27. 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.

28. 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.

29. 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.

30. 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.

31. 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.

32. 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.

33. 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.

34. 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.

35. 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.

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