Summary:
Explores the life and political savvy of Nero's mother, Agrippina. Questions to what extent Agrippina's family connections, early life and the female role models she had been exposed to shape her vision for her own life.
On the 6th of April, AD15 Agrippina II was born in Germany to parents Agrippina I and popular military commander, Germanicus. Agrippina was born into an imperial dynasty of Rome with a strong lineage to the prominent Emperors and women in the time period.
Agrippina was the daughter of a major amalgamation of imperial power. Agrippina I, her mother, was the daughter of Julia and Agrippa. Julia was the daughter of the divine Augustus and Agrippa had been a solid military and political influence. Her father, Germanicus was the son of Antonia I and Drusus, son of Livia, second wife to Augustus. Agrippina. This proud lineage provided Agrippina with a strong and valid link to all five of the Julio-Claudian emperors. Her link to the emperors would have validated in her mind the corrupt nature of Roman politics and the possibility of power in her life. She was Augustus' great grand-daughter, grand-daughter of Tiberius by adoption and great-niece by blood relation, Gaius' sister, Claudius' niece and eventually his wife and the mother of the last emperor, Nero.
These family connections set the course of events that occurred in her early life. The women of her lineage had suffered at the hands of the Julio-Claudian emperors, with her grand-mother starving to death on the island of Pandateria only a year before her birth. Her father, Germanicus died in AD 19 resulting in the entirety of imperial Rome devastated in the wake of his passing. Her mother, with a harsh vendetta against Tiberius ultimately was destroyed by the influence of Sejanus and was sent into exile along with her brother Nero. Drusus died of starvation under arrest of starvation.
The female role models in her life were the Imperial Women. Livia, wife of Augustus was a great influence. She was a powerful woman who held the title of Augusta after her death. The Julio-Claudian women held great prominence and would have acted as role models to Agrippina. Her Claudian grand-mother, Antonia retained her status after the death of her husband Drusus and was the woman who uncovered the plot of Sejanus. These great examples of power would have acted as a guide to young Agrippina.
Having witnessed such corrupt politics, Agrippina would have realised at a young age that in order to be successful you had to achieve power. By age 13 she was wed to Ahenobarbus and realised the importance of political marriages. This would have evidently shaped her understanding of control through marriage which she exercised later with Claudius. As a young girl, Agrippina was spared from the heartache her family suffered from emperor Tiberius and this would have taught her the extent of the power the emperor held. The emperor was the utmost force in Rome and in order to achieve as much power as a woman could attain, aligning with the emperor would be a successful way to use power over Rome.
Agrippina's early life and the influence of her family and the Imperial women would have prepared her for the corrupt world of Roman politics when she would finally enter as one of the most influential women in Imperial Rome.
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