Source Material on Agrippina
Suetonius, Claudius Book V: 26
“…but it was Agrippina, daughter of his brother Germanicus, who hooked him.
She had a niece’s privilege of kissing and caressing Claudius, and exercised it
with a noticeable effect on his passions: when the house next met, he persuaded
a group of senators to propose that a union between him and her should be
compulsorily arranged, in the public interest; and that other uncles should
likewise be free to marry their nieces, though this had hitherto counted as
incest.”
Suetonius, Claudius Book V: 43
“In his last years Claudius made it pretty plain that he repented of having
married Agrippina and adopted Nero…and declared his intention of letting
Britannicus come of age because although immature, he was tall enough to wear
the toga of manhood; adding ‘which will at last provide Rome with a true-born
Caesar’.”
Suetonius, Nero Book VI: 6
“Nero was born at Antium on 15 December, AD 37, nine months after Tiberius’
death… At the age of three Nero lost his father and inherited one-third of the
estate; but Gaius, who was also named in the will, not only took everything, but
banished Agrippina.”
Suetonius, Nero Book VI: 8-9
“He [Nero] had reached the age of seventeen when Claudius’ death occurred, and
presented himself to the Palace Guard that day…After being acclaimed Emperor
on the Palace steps, he was taken in a litter to the Guards’ Camp, where he
briefly addressed the troops…”
“He also exalted the memory of his father Domitius, and turned over all his
public and private affairs to Agrippina’s management. On the day of his
accession the password he gave to the colonel on duty was ‘The Best of Mothers’;
and she and he often rode out together through the streets in her litter.”
Suetonius, Nero Book VI: 28
The lecherous passion he felt for his mother, Agrippina, was notorious; but her
enemies would not let him consummate it, fearing that, if he did, she would
become even more powerful and ruthless than hitherto. So he found a new
mistress who was said to be her spitting image; some say that he did, in fact,
commit incest with Agrippina every time they rode in the same litter – the stains
on his clothes when he emerged proved it.”
Suetonius, Nero Book VI: 34
The over-watchful, over-critical eye that Agrippina kept on whatever Nero said
or did proved more than he could stand. He first tried to embarrass her by
frequent threats to abdicate and go into retirement in Rhodes. Then, having
deprived her of all honours and power, and even of her Roman and German
bodyguard, he refused to have her living with him and expelled her from his
Palace; after which he did everything possible to annoy her, sending people to
pester her with law-suits while she stayed in Rome, and when she took refuge on
her riverside estate, making them constantly drive or sail past the windows,
disturbing her with jeers and cat-calls. In the end her threats and violent
behaviour terrified him into deciding that she must die. He tried to poison her
three times, but she had always taken the antidote in advance; so he rigged up a
machine in the ceiling of her bedroom which would dislodge the panels and drop
them on her while she slept. However, one of the people involved in the plot gave
the secret away. Then he had a collapsible boat designed which would either sink
or have its cabin fall in on top of her. Under pretence of a reconciliation, he sent
the most friendly note inviting her to celebrate the Feast of Minerva with him at
Baiae, and on her arrival made one of his captains stage an ostensibly accidental
collision with the galley in which she had sailed. Then he protracted the feast
until a late hour, and when at last she said: ‘I really must get back to Bauli,’
offered her his collapsible boat instead of the damaged galley. Nero was in a very
happy mood as he led Agrippina down to the quay, and even kissed her breasts
before she steeped aboard. He sat up all night, on tenterhooks of anxiety, waiting
for the outcome of his scheme. On discovering that everything had gone wrong
and she had escaped by swimming, when Lucius Agerinus, her freedman,
entered joyfully to report that she was safe and sound, Nero, in desperation,
ordered one of his men to drop a dagger surreptitiously beside Agerinus, whom
he arrested at once on a charge of having been hired to murder the Emperor.
After this he arranged for Agrippina to be killed, and made it seem as if she had
sent Agerinus to assassinate him but committed suicide on hearing that the plot
had miscarried. Other more gruesome details are supplied by reliable
authorities: it appears that Nero rushed off to examine Agrippina’s corpse,
handling her limbs and, between drinks to satisfy his thirst, discussing their
good and bad points. Though encouraged by the congratulations which poured in
from the Army, the Senate, and the people, he was never either then or
thereafter able to free his conscience from the guilt of this crime. He often
admitted that he was hounded by his mother’s ghost and that the Furies were
pursuing him with whips and burning torches; and set Persian magicians at
work to conjure up the ghost and entreat its forgiveness. During his tour of
Greece he came to Athens, where the Eleusinian Mysteries were being held, but
dared not participate when a herald ordered all impious and criminal persons
present to withdraw before the ceremonies began.
Cassius Dio: Roman History Book 59.3.4 -6
Gaius’ Conduct as Emperor (A.D. 37)
“His [Gaius’] mother, his sisters and his grandmother Antonia he treated at first
with great respect. He immediately gave Antonia the title ‘Augusta’ and
appointed her priestess of Augustus, granting her on the spot the full privileges
of the Vestal Virgins. To his sisters he also granted these privileges of the Vestal
Virgins and in addition the right to watch the games in the circus with him from
the same front seats, and the right to have their names included not only in the
prayers offered annually by the magistrates and priests for his own welfare and
the welfare of the state, but also in the oaths of allegiance that were sworn to his
rule…. Yet, after doing all this, he acted in a most impious fashion towards both
his grandmother and his sisters. He forced his grandmother to commit suicide
because she had criticized him for something; and as for his sisters, after taking
them all as sexual partners, he banished two of them to an island; the third had
already died.
Cassius Dio: Roman History Book 59.22.8
A.D. 39
“As for his sisters, he [Gaius] deported them to the Pontian islands because of
their sexual activities with Lepidus, after accusing them in a letter to the senate
of many treasonable and licentious acts. Agrippina was given Lepidus’ bones in
an urn and told to carry it back to Rome, keeping hold of it in her lap the whole
way. And as many honours had previously been voted to his sisters clearly on his
own account, he forbade the award of any distinction to any of his relatives.”
Cassius Dio: Roman History Book 60.4.1
Claudius’ recall of exiles A.D. 41
“… He (Claudius) also brought back those whom Gaius had unjustly sent into
exile, including Gaius’ sisters Agrippina and Julia, and restored their property to
them.”
Study Questions:
Find and list the dates for the following events:
EVENT
Tiberius’ death
Gaius (Caligula)’s
accession to Princeps
(Emperor)
Nero’s birth
Agrippina’s banishment
by Gaius
Agrippina’s return (by
order of Claudius)
Claudius’ accession to
Princeps (Emperor)
Agrippina’s marriage to
Claudius
Claudius’ death
Nero’s accession to
Princeps (Emperor)
Agrippina’s death
DATE
COMMENT