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Agrippina Junior - Bronze 13mm (1.7 grams)
Struck 10-59 A.D.
Draped bust of Agrippina right, dotted border around.
Forepart of galley right, AKP above, dotted border around.
You are bidding on the exact item pictured,
provided with a Certificate of Authenticity and Lifetime Guarantee of
Authenticity.
Julia Agrippina (from AD 50, Julia Augusta Agrippina), also
known as Agrippina the Younger and Agrippina Minor[1]
(7 November AD 15–19/23 March AD 59) was a Roman empress. She was a
great-granddaughter of the emperor
Augustus;
great-niece and adoptive granddaughter of the emperor
Tiberius;
sister to the emperor
Caligula;
niece and fourth wife of the emperor
Claudius;
and mother of the emperor
Nero.
Agrippina the Younger has been described by the ancient and modern sources as
‘ruthless, ambitious, violent and domineering’. She was a beautiful and
reputable woman and according to
Pliny the Elder, she had a double canine in her upper right jaw, a sign of
good fortune. Many ancient historians accuse Agrippina of poisoning Emperor
Claudius, though accounts vary.[2]
Early
life
Family
Agrippina the Younger was the first daughter and fourth living child of
Agrippina the Elder and
Germanicus.
She was the namesake of her mother.
Mother
The elder Agrippina is remembered as a modest and heroic matron, who was the
second daughter and fourth child of
Julia the Elder and the statesman
Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa. The father of Julia the Elder was the Emperor
Augustus,
and Julia was his only natural child from his second wife
Scribonia,
who had been a descendant of General
Pompey the
Great and the dictator
Lucius Cornelius Sulla.
Father
Germanicus, Agrippina's father, was a very popular general and politician.
He had one sister,
Livilla, and
his brother was the Emperor
Claudius.
His mother was
Antonia Minor and his father was the general
Nero Claudius Drusus (who was brother of the Emperor
Tiberius).
Antonia Minor was a daughter to
Octavia Minor through her second marriage to triumvir
Mark
Antony, and Octavia Minor was the second eldest sister and full-blooded
sister of Augustus. Germanicus’ father, Nero Claudius Drusus, was the second son
of the Empress Livia
Drusilla by her first marriage to praetor
Tiberius Nero, and thus was Emperor
Tiberius’
younger brother and Augustus’s stepson. In the year 9, Augustus ordered and
forced Tiberius to adopt Germanicus, Tiberius's nephew, as his son and heir.
Germanicus was a favorite of his great-uncle Augustus, who hoped that Germanicus
would succeed his uncle Tiberius, who was Augustus's own adopted son and heir.
Agrippina the Younger was born to Agrippina the Elder at Oppidum Ubiorum, a
Roman outpost on the
Rhine River (modern
Cologne,
Germany), in
the year 15. As a small child, she travelled with her parents throughout the
empire until she and her siblings (apart from Caligula) returned to Rome to live
with and be raised by their paternal grandmother, Antonia. Her parents, in the
meantime, journeyed to
Syria to complete
official duties. One year later in October, Germanicus died suddenly in
Antioch
(modern Antakya,
Turkey).
Germanicus’ death in the year 19 caused much public grief in Rome (and gave
rise to rumors of murder), as his widow Agrippina the Elder returned to Rome
with his ashes. Agrippina the Younger was thereafter supervised by her mother
and her great-grandmother, Livia, both notable, influential, and powerful
figures, and she lived on the
Palatine Hill in
Rome. Her great-uncle Tiberius had already become emperor and the head of
the family after the death of the Emperor Augustus in 14.
Marriage
to Domitius
After her thirteenth birthday in 28, Tiberius arranged for Agrippina to marry
Gnaeus Domitius Ahenobarbus and ordered the marriage to be celebrated in
Rome. Domitius came
from a distinguished family. From his paternal side he descended from
men of
consular rank. Through his mother
Antonia Major, he was related to the imperial family. Antonia Major was the
elder sister to Antonia Minor and was another daughter to Octavia Minor and Mark
Antony (Augustus being her maternal uncle). Domitius was her father’s first
maternal cousin and her mother’s second maternal cousin. He was a wealthy man
with a despicable and dishonest character. Domitius was consul in 32. Agrippina
and Domitius lived between Antium (modern
Anzio) and Rome.
Not much is known about the relationship between them.
Reign
of Caligula
Tiberius died on March 16, 37 and her only surviving brother,
Caligula
became the new emperor. As sister of the Emperor, Agrippina began to gain some
influence.
Agrippina, with her younger sisters
Julia Drusilla and
Julia
Livilla received various honours from their brother:
- They were given the rights of the
Vestal Virgins (like the freedom to view public games from the upper
seats in the stadium).
- Issuing of coins depicting images of Caligula and his sisters. Roman
coins like these were never issued before.
- Caligula added his sister's names in all loyalty oaths in the following
terms: ‘I will not value my life or that of my children less highly than I
do the safety of the Emperor and his sisters’ and in consular motions: ‘Good
fortune attend to the Emperor and his sisters’.
Birth of Nero
Around the time that Tiberius died, Agrippina had become pregnant and
Domitius had acknowledged the paternity of the child. In the early morning hours
in Antium of December 15, 37, Agrippina gave birth to a son—her first child, and
the first born to Domitius. Agrippina and Domitius named him Lucius Domitius
Ahenobarbus, after Domitius' late father. This child would grow up to become
the Emperor Nero.
Nero was Agrippina's only natural child.
Incestuous
relationships and death of Drusilla
Caligula and his sisters were accused of having incestuous relationships.
Allegedly, during large banquets Caligula would commit incest with his sisters
and also Caligula allowed his friends to sleep with his sisters in the palace.
On June 10, 38, Drusilla died (possibly of a
fever, rampant in
Rome at the time), and following her death Caligula's relationship with
Agrippina and Livilla changed. Caligula showed no extreme love nor respect
towards them.
Exile
to Pontine Islands
In 39, Agrippina and Livilla, with their maternal cousin, Drusilla's widower
Marcus Aemilius Lepidus, were involved in a failed plot to murder Caligula
and make Lepidus the new emperor. Lepidus, Agrippina and Livilla were lovers.
Not much is known concerning this plot and the reasons behind it. At the trial
of Lepidus, Caligula felt no compunction about denouncing them as adultresses,
producing handwritten letters discussing how they were going to kill him.
Lepidus was executed. Agrippina and Livilla were exiled by their brother to
the
Pontine Islands. Caligula sold their furniture, jewellery, slaves and
freedmen. In January 40, Domitius died of
edema (dropsy) at
Pyrgi. Nero had gone to live with his second paternal aunt
Domitia Lepida after Caligula had taken his inheritance away from him.
Caligula, his wife, and his daughter were murdered on January 24, 41.
Agrippina's paternal uncle,
Claudius,
brother of Agrippina's father
Germanicus,
became the new Roman emperor.
Reign
of Claudius
Return
from exile and marriage to Gaius Sallustius Crispus Passienus
Claudius ordered Agrippina and Livilla to return from exile. Livilla returned
to her husband, while Agrippina was reunited with her estranged son. After the
death of her first husband, Agrippina tried to make shameless advances to the
future emperor Galba,
who showed no interest in her and was devoted to his wife (Galba would succeed
Agrippina's son Nero in the
chaos that ensued after Nero committed suicide in AD 68). On one occasion
Galba's mother-in-law gave Agrippina, in a whole bevy of married women, a public
reprimand and a slap in the face.[3]
Claudius also had Nero’s inheritance reinstated and arranged for
Gaius Sallustius Crispus Passienus and
Domitia (Nero's first paternal aunt) to divorce so that Crispus could marry
Agrippina. When Agrippina returned, she had nothing to return to. Agrippina
married Crispus as her second husband and he became a stepfather to Nero.
Crispus was a prominent, influential, witty, wealthy and powerful man, who
served twice as consul. He was the adopted grandson and biological great, great
nephew of the historian
Sallust.
Little, however, is known on their relationship.
Assassination
attempt of Nero
In the first years of Claudius’ reign, Claudius was married to the infamous
Roman Empress
Valeria Messalina, who had, through her manipulation, convinced Claudius to
order the exile and/or executions of
Seneca the Younger (who would be returned from exile in AD 50 to tutor
Nero), Agrippina's sister Livilla, Livilla's husband Marcus Vinicius,
Julia (daughter of Drusus the Younger); consul Gaius Asinius Pollio II (see
Vipsania Agrippina), the mother of future Empress
Poppaea Sabina, (Nero's second wife), consul
Decimus Valerius Asiaticus and
Polybius (freedman). Although Agrippina was very influential, she kept a
very low profile and stayed away from the imperial palace and the court of the
emperor. Messalina was Agrippina’s second paternal cousin, and niece of
Agrippina's first husband Domitius.
When Agrippina returned from exile, Messalina realised that Agrippina’s son
was a threat to her son’s position and sent assassins to strangle Nero during
his siesta. The assassins left in terror, when a snake suddenly darted from
beneath Nero’s pillow—but it was only a sloughed-off snake-skin in his bed, near
his pillow.
Death
of Crispus
In 47, Crispus died, and at his funeral, the rumour spread around that
Agrippina poisoned Crispus to gain his estate. After being widowed a second
time, Agrippina was left very wealthy. Later that year, at the
Secular Games, at the performance of the Troy Pageant, Messalina attended
the event with her son Britannicus. Agrippina was also present with Nero.
Agrippina and Nero received greater applause from the audience than Messalina
and
Britannicus did. Many people began to show pity and sympathy to Agrippina,
due to the unfortunate circumstances in her life. Agrippina wrote a memoir that
recorded the misfortunes of her family (casus suorum) and wrote an account of
her mother,
Agrippina the Elder's life.
Rise
to power, executions of Silanus and Paulina
In 48, after the death of Messalina, Claudius considered remarrying for the
fourth time. Around this time, she became the mistress to one of Claudius’
advisers, former Greek Freedman
Pallas. At that time Claudius’ advisers were discussing which noble woman
Claudius should marry. Claudius had a reputation that he was easily controlled
by his wives and freedmen.
Pallas advised
Claudius
that he should marry Agrippina. Pallas stated to the emperor, that her son was
the grandson to his late brother Germanicus; by marrying her Claudius would ally
the two branches of the Claudian house and imperial family. For Agrippina’s
seduction, it was a help that she had the niece’s privilege of kissing and
caressing her paternal uncle. Claudius was seduced by her passions.
Claudius made references to her in his speeches: "my daughter and foster
child, born and bred, in my lap, so to speak". When Claudius decided to marry
her, he persuaded a group of senators at their marriage should be arranged in
the public interest. In Roman society, an uncle marrying his niece was
considered to be incestuous.
Agrippina and Claudius married on New Year’s Day, AD 49. This marriage caused
widespread disapproval. This was a part of Agrippina’s scheming plan to make her
son Roman Emperor. Her marriage to Claudius wasn’t based on love, but on power.
She eliminated her rival and distant relative
Lollia Paulina (who was Empress as third wife of
Caligula),
who was another possible wife for Claudius (the third possible noblewoman
Claudius could have married, after Agrippina and Paulina was Claudius's second
wife,
Aelia Paetina). In 49, Agrippina charged Paulina with
black
magic. Paulina did not receive a hearing. Her property was confiscated, she
left Italy and on orders, she committed suicide.
Before her marriage to Claudius, her maternal second cousin
praetor,
Lucius Junius Silanus Torquatus was betrothed to Claudius’ daughter
Claudia Octavia. This betrothal was broken off in 48, when Agrippina
scheming with consul
Lucius Vitellius had falsely charged Silanus with open affection towards his
sister
Junia
Calvina. Agrippina did this hopefully to secure Octavia to marry her son.
Consequently Claudius broke off the engagement and forced Silanus to resign from
public office. Silanus committed suicide on the day that Agrippina married her
uncle and Calvina was exiled from
Italy in early
49. Towards the end of 54, Agrippina would order the murder of Silanus' eldest
brother
Marcus Junius Silanus Torquatus without her son's knowledge, so he wouldn't
seek revenge against her over his brother's death.
Empress
of Rome
On the day that Agrippina married Claudius as her third husband, she became
an Empress and the most powerful woman in the
Roman
Empire. She also was a stepmother to
Claudia Antonia (Claudius' daughter and only child from his second marriage
to
Aelia Paetina) and to the young
Claudia Octavia and
Britannicus, Claudius' children with Valeria Messalina. Agrippina removed or
eliminated anyone from the palace or the imperial court whom she thought was
loyal and dedicated to memory of the late Messalina. She also eliminated or
removed anyone who she considered was a potential threat to her position and the
future of her son (one of her victims being Nero's second paternal aunt:
Messalina's mother
Domitia Lepida).
In 49, Agrippina presided over the exercises of Roman legions and
Celtic King
Caratacus
assumed that she, as well as Claudius, was the martial leader and bowed before
her throne with the same homage and gratitude as he accorded the emperor.
In 50, Agrippina was granted the honorific title of
Augusta (a
title which no other imperial woman had ever received in the lifetime of her
husband). She was only the third Roman woman and only the second living Roman
woman to receive this title. Also that year, Claudius had founded a Roman colony
and called the colony Colonia Claudia Ara Agrippinensis or
Agrippinensium, today known as
Cologne,
after Agrippina who was born there. This colony was the only Roman colony to be
named after a Roman woman. In 51, she was given a
carpentum which she used. A carpentum was a sort of ceremonial carriage
usually reserved for priests (such as the
Vestal Virgins) and sacred statues. That same year she appointed
Sextus Afranius Burrus as the head of the
Praetorian Guard.
Agrippina successfully manipulated and influenced Claudius into adopting her
son and having him become his successor. Lucius Domitius Ahenobarbus in 50 was
adopted by his great maternal uncle and stepfather. Lucius’ name was changed to
Nero Claudius
Caesar Drusus Germanicus and he became Claudius’ adopted son, heir and
recognised successor. Agrippina and Claudius betrothed Nero to Octavia and
Agrippina arranged to have
Seneca the Younger return from exile to tutor the future emperor. Claudius
chose to adopt Agrippina's son because of his Julian lineage.[4]
Agrippina deprived Britannicus of his heritage and further isolated him from his
father and succession for the throne. In 51 Agrippina ordered the execution of
Britannicus’ tutor Sosibius, because he confronted Agrippina and was outraged by
Claudius’ adoption of Nero and his choice of Nero as successor, instead of his
own natural son Britannicus.
Nero and Octavia were married on June 9, 53. Claudius later repented of
marrying Agrippina and adopting Nero, began to favor Britannicus, and started
preparing him for the throne. This was the motive that is claimed by many that
Agrippina needed to eliminate Claudius. Ancient sources credited her with
poisoning Claudius on October 13, 54 with a plate of poisoned
mushrooms
at a banquet, thus enabling
Nero to quickly
take the throne as emperor. Accounts vary wildly with regard to this private
incident and according to more modern sources, it is quite possible Claudius
died of natural causes.[2]
Reign
of Nero
Power
struggle
Agrippina was named a priestess of the cult of the deified Claudius. She was
allowed to visit senate meetings, watch and hear the meetings behind a curtain.
This evidently shows that she had real power.
In the first months of Nero’s reign Agrippina controlled her son and the
empire. She lost control over Nero when he began to have an affair with the
freedwoman
Claudia
Acte, which Agrippina strongly disapproved of and violently scolded him for.
Agrippina began to support
Britannicus in her attempt to make him emperor. Britannicus was secretly
poisoned on Nero’s orders during a banquet in February 55. The power struggle
between Agrippina and her son had begun.
Agrippina between 55 and 58 became very watchful and had a critical eye over
her son. In 55 Agrippina was forced out of the palace by her son to live in
imperial residence. Nero deprived his mother of all honors, powers and even
removed her Roman and German bodyguards. Nero even threatened his mother he
would abdicate the throne and would go to live on the Greek Island of
Rhodes. Pallas
also was dismissed from the court. The fall of Pallas and the opposition of
Burrus and Seneca, contributed to Agrippina's loss of authority.[5]
Towards 57, Agrippina was expelled from the Palace and went to live in a
riverside estate in
Misenum.
While Agrippina lived there or when she went on short visits to Rome, Nero had
sent people to
annoy her.
Although living in Misenum, she was still very popular, powerful and
influential. Agrippina and Nero would see each other on short visits.
Death
and aftermath
The circumstances that surround Agrippina's death are uncertain due to
historical contradictions and anti-Nero bias. All surviving stories of
Agrippina's death contradict themselves, each other and are generally
fantastical.
Tacitus's
account
According to
Tacitus, in 58, Nero became involved with the noble woman
Poppaea Sabina. With the reasoning that a divorce from his wife, Octavia,
and a marriage to Poppaea was not politically feasible with Agrippina alive,
Nero decided to kill Agrippina.[6]
Yet, Nero did not marry Poppaea until 62, calling into question this motive.[7]
Additionally,
Suetonius reveals that Poppaea's husband,
Otho, was not sent
away by Nero until after Agrippina's death in 59, making it highly unlikely that
already married Poppaea would be pressing Nero.[8]
Some modern historians theorize that Nero's decision to kill Agrippina was
prompted by her plotting to set Gaius
Rubellius Plautus (Nero's maternal second cousin) on the throne.[9]
Tacitus claims that Nero considered poisoning or stabbing her, but felt these
methods were too difficult and suspicious, so he settled on building a
self-sinking boat.[10]
Though aware of the plot, Agrippina embarked on this boat and was nearly crushed
by a collapsing lead ceiling only to be saved by the side of a sofa breaking the
ceiling's fall.[11]
Though the collapsing ceiling missed Agrippina, it crushed the tiller who was
outside at the helm.[11]
The boat failed to sink from the lead ceiling, so the crew then sank the boat,
but Agrippina swam to shore.[11]
Her friend,
Acerronia Polla, was attacked by oarsmen while still in the water, and was
either bludgeoned to death or drowned. Agrippina was met at the shore by crowds
of admirers.[12]
News of Agrippina's survival reached Nero so he sent three assassins to stab
her.[12]
Suetonius's
account
According to
Suetonius,
Nero was annoyed at his mother being too watchful and tried three times to
poison Agrippina, but she took the antidotes in time and survived.[13]
He then tried to crush her with a mechanical ceiling over her bed at her
residence.[13]
After this failed, he devised a collapsable boat, which would either have its
cabin fall in or become shipwrecked. Nero then ordered captains of a different
boat to ram this boat while Agrippina was aboard.[13]
Nero heard Agrippina survived the wreck so he ordered her to be executed and
framed it as a suicide.[13]
Cassius
Dio's account
The tale of
Cassius
Dio is also somewhat different. It starts again with Poppaea as the motive
of the murder.[14]
In this tale, Nero designed a ship that would open at the bottom while at sea.[15]
Agrippina was put aboard and after the bottom of the ship opened up, she fell
into the water.[15]
Agrippina swam to shore so Nero sent an assassin to kill her.[16]
Nero then claimed Agrippina plotted to kill him and committed suicide.[17]
Her reputed last words, uttered as the assassin was about to strike, were 'Smite
my womb' (the implication here being she wished to be destroyed first in that
part of her body that had given birth to so "abominable a son").[18]
Aftermath
After Agrippina's death, Nero viewed her corpse and commented how beautiful
she was. Her body was cremated that night on a dining couch. At his mother's
funeral, Nero was witless, speechless and rather scared. When the news spread
that Agrippina had died, the Roman army, senate and various people sent him
letters of congratulations that he had murdered his mother.
Burial
During the remainder of Nero's reign, Agrippina's grave was not covered or
enclosed. Her household later on gave her a modest tomb in
Misenum. Nero
would have his mother’s death on his conscience. He felt so guilty he would
sometimes have nightmares about his mother. He even saw his mother’s ghost and
got
Persian magicians to scare her away. Years before she died, Agrippina had
visited
astrologers to ask about her son’s future. The astrologers had (rather
accurately) predicted that her son would become emperor and would kill her. She
replied, "Let him kill me, provided he becomes emperor."
In
later literature
The Empress, by Robert DeMaria, Vineyard Press (ISBN
1-930067-05-4)
Handel's 1709 opera,
Agrippina
with a libretto by
Vincenzo Grimani.
Perspectives
on her personality
Ancient
Note that most ancient Roman sources are quite critical of Agrippina the
Younger, because she was seen as stepping outside the conservative Roman ideals
regarding the roles of women.
Tacitus:
Critical view, considered her vicious and had a strong disposition against her
due to her femininity and influential role in politics. Perhaps the most
comprehensive of Ancient sources. Others are
Suetonius
and
Cassius Dio.
Modern
- E. Groag, A.
Stein, L. Petersen – e.a. (edd.), Prosopographia Imperii Romani
saeculi I, II et III, Berlin, 1933 –. (PIR2)
-
Scullard: A critical view of Agrippina, suggesting she was ambitious and
unscrupulous and a depraved sexual
psychopath. "Agrippina struck down a series of victims; no man or woman
was safe if she suspected rivalry or desired their wealth."[19]
-
Ferrero: Sympathetic and understanding, suggesting Agrippina has been
judged harshly by history. Suggesting her marriage to Claudius was to a weak
emperor who was, because of his hesitations and terrors, a threat to the
imperial authority and government. She saw it her duty to compensate for the
innumerable deficiencies of her strange husband through her own intelligence
and strength of will. Pages
212ff.;
276ff.
- Barrett: A reasonable view, comparing Scullard's criticisms to Ferrero's
apologies. (See Barrett, Anthony A., Agrippina: Sex, Power and Politics in
the Early Roman Empire, Yale University Press, New Haven, 1996.)
-
Salmonson, Jessica Amanda. (1991) The Encyclopedia of Amazons.
Paragon House. Pages 4–5.
- Donna Hurley,
Agrippina the Younger (Wife of Claudius).
- L. Foubert,
Agrippina. Keizerin van Rome, Leuven, 2006.
- Opera by G.F. Händel:
Agrippina
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