Agrippina the Elder
Agrippina the Elder was a prominent figure in early Roman history, known for her political acumen and her connections to imperial power. Born around 14 BCE as the daughter of Julia and Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa, she became the wife of Germanicus Julius Caesar, Tiberius's nephew, and the mother of nine children, including Caligula and Agrippina the Younger, who would become Nero's mother. Following the death of her husband Germanicus in 19 CE, Agrippina became increasingly embroiled in the political conflicts surrounding the imperial succession, openly challenging Tiberius and his administration.
Despite her noble birth, Agrippina did not hold formal political office, as women were excluded from such roles in Rome. However, she was known for her assertive demeanor and her efforts to secure her family’s position within the imperial hierarchy, which reflected a growing influence of women in Roman politics. Her rivalry with Tiberius’s regime led to her exile in 29 CE, where she ultimately died of starvation. Agrippina's life and actions illustrate the complexities of power dynamics within the Roman Empire and the roles women played, even in a male-dominated society. A notable portrait of her exists in the Capitoline Museum, highlighting her enduring legacy.
Agrippina the Elder
Related civilization: Imperial Rome
Major role/position: Aristocrat, political power broker
Life
The first emperor of Rome, Augustus, tried to engineer the succession to power through his daughter Julia. By her second husband, Augustus’s colleague Agrippa, Julia was the mother of Gaius (born 20 b.c.e.), Lucius (17), Julia minor (18), Agrippina (14), and Agrippa Postumus (12). On the disgrace of her sister (2 b.c.e.) and the deaths of her brothers by 4 c.e., Agrippina (ag-rih-PI-nuh) was at the center of the struggles over imperial succession. Upon the death of Agrippa in 12 b.c.e., Augustus forced his stepson Tiberius to marry his daughter Julia to serve as a father figure for her children with Agrippa.
Agrippina married Germanicus Julius Caesar, Tiberius’s nephew. Upon Augustus’s death in 14 c.e., Tiberius came to power. Germanicus and Agrippina had nine children, including Tiberius’s successor Caligula (born 12 c.e.) and Agrippina the Younger (born 15 c.e., mother of Nero). The instinctively political Agrippina ostentatiously courted the favor of the Rhine army in 14-16 and opposed Tiberius’s governor of Syria, Piso, and his wife, Plancina, in 17-19. She publicly suspected Tiberius and his mother Livia of responsibility for Germanicus’s untimely death in 19 (which modern historians doubt).
When Tiberius’s son by his former wife Vipsania, Drusus the Younger, died (possibly at the hands of Sejanus, Tiberius’s prefect of the Praetorian Guard) in 23, Agrippina’s sons Nero, Drusus III, and Caligula were placed in line for the succession. Sejanus opposed Agrippina in order to further his own agenda and had Nero and Drusus III eliminated; Caligula, however, would remain to succeed Tiberius upon the latter’s death in 37. Sejanus also took advantage of the mutual suspicion between Tiberius and Agrippina the Elder to see that she was exiled to Pandateria in 29, and four years later she died there of starvation. A famous portrait of her survives in Rome’s Capitoline Museum.
Influence
Since Rome neither had a titled nobility nor allowed women to hold public office, Agrippina was only an aristocrat, not a princess. Her flair for dramatic action, however, accelerated the trend whereby the great ladies of Rome were increasingly prominent in politics, as is readily apparent in the Annals (c. 116) of Tacitus.
Bibliography
Barrett, A. A. Agrippina. New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1996.
Barrett, A. A. Caligula: The Corruption of Power. New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1990.
Bauman, R. Women and Politics in Ancient Rome. New York: Routledge, 1992.
Syme, R. The Augustan Aristocracy. Oxford, England: Oxford University Press, 1986.