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 (q.v.), who died at Antioch in 19, poisoned, it was said, by order of Cn. 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 of 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 Tac. Ann. i.-vi.; Suetonius, Tiberius, 53; Dio Cassius lvii. 6, lviii. 22, lix. 3; Elizabeth Hamilton, Memoirs of the Life of Agrippina (1804): Burkhard, Agrippina, des Agrippa Tochter (1846); Stahr, Römische Kaiserfrauen (1880).
AGRIPPINA, the “younger” (A.D. 16–59), daughter of Germanicus and Agrippina the elder, sister of Caligula and mother of Nero, was born at Oppidum Ubiorum on the Rhine, afterwards named in her honour Colonia Agrippinae (mod. Cologne). Her life was notorious for intrigue and perfidy. By her first husband, Gnaeus Domitius Ahenobarbus, she was the mother of the emperor Nero; her second husband was Passienus Crispus, whom she was accused of poisoning. Assisted by the influential freedman Pallas, she induced her uncle the emperor Claudius to marry her after the death of Messalina, and adopt the future Nero as heir to the throne in place of Britannicus. Soon afterwards she poisoned Claudius and secured the throne for her son, with the intention of practically ruling on his behalf. Being alarmed at the influence of the freedwoman Acte over Nero, she threatened to support the claims of the rightful heir Britannicus. Nero thereupon murdered the young prince and decided to get rid of his mother. Pretending a reconciliation, he invited her to Baiae, where an attempt was made to drown her on a vessel especially constructed to founder. As this proved a failure, he had her put to death at her country house. Agrippina wrote memoirs of her times, referred to by Tacitus (Ann. iv. 53). Her character is set forth in Racine’s Britannicus.
See Tac. Ann. xii., xiii., xiv.; Dio Cassius lix.-lxi.; Suetonius, Nero, 34; Stahr, Agrippina, die Mutter Neros (1880); Raffay, Die Memoiren der Kaiserin Agrippina (1884); B. W. Henderson, The Life and Principate of the Emperor Nero (1903); also article Nero.
AGROTERAS THUSIA, an annual festival held at Agrae near Athens, in honour of Artemis Agrotera, in fulfilment of a vow made by the city, before the battle of Marathon, to offer in sacrifice a number of goats equal to that of the Persians slain in the conflict. The number being so great, it was decided to offer 500 goats yearly.
See Plutarch, De Malignitate Herodoti, 26; Xenophon, Anab. iii. 2. 12; Aelian, Var. Hist. ii. 25; Schol. on Aristophanes, Equites, 660.
AGUADILLA, a town and port near the northern extremity of the W. coast of Porto Rico. Pop. (1899) 6425. It has a fairly good and safe anchorage, and is the commercial outlet for a very fertile agricultural district. The town is attractively situated and well built, and is connected by railway with Mayaguez, 20 m. distant, and also with Ponce and San Juan. The neighbouring district produces sugar-cane, tobacco, cattle, cocoanuts, oranges and lemons. The bay is supposed to have been first visited by Columbus (November 1493), though the town was not founded until 1775.
AGUADO, ALEXANDRE MARIE, marquis de Las Marismas del Guadalquivir, viscount de Monte Ricco (1784–1842), Spanish banker, was born of Jewish parentage at Seville, on the 29th of June 1784. He began life as a soldier, fighting with distinction in the Spanish war of independence on the side of Joseph Bonaparte. After the battle of Baylen (1808) he entered the French army, in which he rose to be colonel and aide-de-camp to Marshal Soult. He was exiled in 1815, and immediately started business as a commission-agent in Paris, where, chiefly through his family connexions in Havana and Mexico, he acquired in a few years enough wealth to enable him to undertake banking. The Spanish government gave him full powers to negotiate the loans of 1823, 1828, 1830 and 1831; and Ferdinand VII. rewarded him with the title of marquis, the decorations of several orders and valuable mining concessions in Spain. Aguado also negotiated the Greek loan of 1834. In 1828, having become possessed of large estates in France, including the château Margaux, famous for its wine, he was naturalized as a French citizen. He died at Gijon in Spain on the 14th of April 1842, leaving a fortune computed at 60,000,000 francs, and a splendid collection of pictures which at his death was bought by the French government.
AGUASCALIENTES, an inland state of Mexico, bounded N., E. and W. by the state of Zacatecas, and S. by Jalisco. Pop. (est. 1900) 102,416, a gradual decrease since the census years of 1895 and 1879; area, 2970 sq. m. The state occupies an elevated plateau, extending from two spurs of the Sierra Madre, called the Sierra Fria and Sierra de Laurel, eastward to the rolling fertile plains of its eastern and south-eastern districts. It is well watered by numerous small streams and one larger river, the Aguascalientes or Rio Grande, and has a mild healthy climate with a moderate rainfall. The fertile valleys of the north and west are devoted to agriculture and the plains to stockraising. Indian corn, flour, cattle, horses, mules and hides are exported to the neighbouring states. Mining industries are still undeveloped, but considerable progress has been made in manufactures, especially of textile fabrics. The state has good railway communications and a prosperous trade. The capital, Aguascalientes, named from the medicinal hot springs near it, is a flourishing commercial and manufacturing city. Pop. (est. 1900) 35,052. It has cotton factories, smelting works, potteries. tanneries, distilleries, and wagon and tobacco factories. It is a station on the Mexican Central railway, 364 m. by rail north-west of the city of Mexico, and is connected by rail with Tampico on the Gulf of Mexico. The city is well built, has many fine churches and good public buildings, street cars and electric lights. The surrounding district is well cultivated and produces an abundance of fruit and vegetables. Other prominent towns of the state are Rincón de Romos (or Victoria de Calpulalpam), Asientos de Ibarra and Calvillo, the first having more and the others less than 5000 inhabitants.
AGUE (from Lat. acuta, sharp; sc. febris, fever), the common name given to a form or stage of malarial disease; the ague fit is the cold, shivering stage, and hence the word is also loosely used for any such paroxysm. Simple ague is of much the same type whether in temperate or tropical climates, and may take various forms (quotidian, tertian, quartan), passing into “remittent fever.” The symptoms are discussed, together with causation, &c., in the article Malaria. For “brow-ague” see Neuralgia.
AGUESSEAU, HENRI FRANÇOIS D’ (1668–1751), chancellor of France, illustrious for his virtues, learning and talents, was born at Limoges, of a family of the magistrature. His father, Henri d’ Aguesseau, a hereditary councillor of the parlement of Metz, was a man of singular ability and breadth of view who, after holding successively the posts of intendant of Limousin, Guyenne and Languedoc, was in 1685 called to Paris as councillor of state, appointed director-general of commerce and
