Agrippina, the "elder", daughter of
Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa
by his third wife Julia, was the grand-daughter of
Augustus
and the wife of
Germanicus. She accompanied her husband to
Germany, when the legions on the Rhine revolted after the
death of Augustus (A.D. 14). Three years later she was in
the East with Germanicus, who died at Antioch
? in
19, poisoned, it was said, by order of Cnaeus Calpurnius Piso,
governor of Syria. Eager to avenge his death, she returned
to
Rome and boldly accused Piso of the murder of Germanicus.
To avoid public infamy Piso committed suicide.
Tiberius and
his favourite Sejanus
? feared that her ambition might lead
her to attempt to secure the throne for her children, and
she was banished to the island of Pandataria off the coast of
Campania, where she died on the 18th of October 33, starved
to death by herself, or, according to some, by order of
Tiberius. Two of her sons, Nero and Drusus, had already
fallen victims to the machinations cf Sejanus. Agrippina
had a large family by Germanicus, several of whom died young,
while only two are of importance--
Agrippina the younger
and Gaius Caesar, who succeeded Tiberius under the name of
Caligula. It is remarkable that, although Tiberius had
ordered the execution of his elder brothers, by his will he
left Caligula one of the heirs of the empire. Agrippina was
a woman of the highest character and exemplary morality.
There is a portrait of her in the Capitoline Museum at Rome,
and a bronze medal in the British Museum representing the
bringing back of her ashes to
Rome by order of Caligula.
See
- Tacitus, Annales i.-vi.
- Julio-Claudian Family Tree
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