Agrippina, tie mother of Nero. On the death
of Augustus (A. D. 14) Germanicus and his wife
were with the army, on the hanks of the Rhine,
where they had much difficulty in restraining the
mutinous soldiery from proclaiming Germanicus
in opposition to his uncle. On this occasion Agripr m i. by her resolution and courage, showed her
self worthy of her descent from Augustus ; and
the following year she exhibited the same quali
ties, in repressing a general panic that had seized
on the soldiers during her husband's absence, and
preventing them from disgracing themselves.
Agrippina was with her husband, in Syria, when
he fell a victim to the arts of Piso and Plancina.
Her resentment at this treatment was such as to
draw upon her the anger of Tiberius; and when,
after i widowhood of seven years, she requested
him to give her a husband, he evaded her petition,
knowing well that the husband of Agrippina would
be a dangerous enemy. At length she so offended
the emperor, by showing him that she suspected
him of an intention to poison her, that he banished
her to the island of Pandataria, and at last closed
her life by starvation, October 18, A. D. 33. The
rage of Tiberius was not appeased by the death
of Agrippina ; he had injured her too deeply to
forgive himself, and so he sought to appease his
hatred by persecuting her children — and her two
eldest sons were his victims.
The character of Agrippina presents some of the strongest points, both of the good and bad, in Roman life. She was frank, upright, sternly courageous, and unimpeachably virtuous. She was faithful and loving to her husband, watchful and anxious for her children. Yet with all this, she was excessively proud of her noble descent; fiery and impetuous in passion, indiscreet in speech, and imprudent in conduct. This is a mixed character, but a shining one. It was one which fell short of Cornelia, but excelled all common fame. Compared with Tiberius, she was an angel in conflict with a demon.
amidst the excitement of war, in a Roman camp, on the shores of the Rhine, — and reared under the laurels of her father's conquests, and the halo of her mother's grandeur. Her father's death occurring at a very early period of her life, her first perception of the career opened to her might have been derived from the sympathy and respect accorded by the Roman people to her family, even in the presence of her father's murderers. Some historians have attributed to her a spirit of vengeance, which, though the accusation is not well substantiated, might indeed have been fostered by the trials of her life, commencing with her early estrangement from her glorious mother, which was followed by her persecution, first by the infamous Sejanus, and after the death of her husband Domitius, by her brother Caligula—who accused her before the senate, of participation in a conspiracy, forced them to condemn her, and had her driven into exile, where she remained in constant fear of a violent death.
On the death of Caligula, Agrippina, recalled from exile, was married to the consul Crispinus, whose sudden death was ascribed by her enemies to poison administered by his wife. Five years after this, Pallas proposed her to Claudius as the successor of Messalina, and after the interval of a year, during which Agrippina had much to con tend with from rivalry and intrigue, the obstacle opposed guinity was to this relieved marriage by a by special the tics law,of and consan the
AGRIPPINA, Jcua, great-granddaughter of Augustus, and daughter of Germanicus and Agrippina, was born
daughter of Germanicus ascended the throne of Augustus, and ruled the empire, from that mo ment, in the name of her imbecile husband. Under her brilliant and vigorous administration, faction was controlled, order re-established, and that sys tem of espionage abolished which had filled Rome with informers and their victims. The reserve and dignity of her deportment produced a reform in the manners of the imperial palace, and her in fluence over her husband was of a most salutary nature. Tacitus has loaded the memory of Agrippina with the imputation of inordinate ambition, and, though there is probably considerable calumny in these charges, it may be supposed that a temper ament like hers did not shrink from the arbitrary and cruel acts which might bo thought necessary to her safety or advancement. Still, tho woman must be judged by the circumstances under which she lived, and with reference to the morality of her contemporaries ; and, so judged, she rises immeasurably superior to the greatest men asso ciated with her history. Agrippina was the first woman who acquired the privilege of entering the capitol in the vehicle assigned to the priests in religious ceremonies, and on all public occasions she took an elevated seat reserved for her, near the emperor. On the occasion of the adoption of her son to the exclusion of the emperor's own child by Mes salina, the infant Britannicus, she received the cognomen of Augusta ; and to the prophetic augur who bade her "beware, lest the son she had so elevated might prove her ruin," she replied, " Let me perish, but let Nero reign." In this answer 21
