Evaluate the Significance of Agrippina's Marriages in Her Rise to Prominence.

Many of Agrippina’s strengths were also her greatest weaknesses. Her political ability and ambition were great strengths of character, as was her determination, but at times she aimed too high and was ultimately brought down by the very traits that had enabled her to achieve positions of power. Agrippina was able to become one of the most significant women of the Ancient Roman World, but at the same time she was considered manipulative, and was despised by many, including eventually her son - the Emperor Nero, who had her killed in the year 59 CE. Despite holding no official political status, and being limited by her gender, Agrippina reached unprecedented heights and helped stabilise the Claudius Regime, demonstrating her strength as a

Around 71 B.C.,a few years before Augustus was born, Gaius Octavius started pursuing a job within the senate, but because of his latin instead of roman descent the pursuit of the job was very difficult for him. He continued pursuing the job in senate till around 70 B.C. when he won a quaestorship, a lower place in the government that entails supervising tax collection and doing special tasks for consuls in Rome, and joined the senate. Based on his latin descent winning a questorship was no small feat so it was no surprise when he was offered a spouse from one of Rome’s great trician clans. The only problem with this was he was already married to Ancharia who is not very well recorded in history so people have no firm evidence for why Gaius Octavius suddenly married Atia, a member of the Julian family making Julius Caesar his great-uncle. Together Atia and Gaius had two children, Octavius the younger and Gaius Octavian, named after his father, along with the one from Ancharia the second of the two being who we know as Augustus.

Following Caesar's assassination, which Cleopatra's presence in Rome may have provoked, Cleopatra had an affair with another Roman leader. Marc Antony was planning a campaign in Parthia and was in desperate need of money when he called upon Cleopatra to question why she had allied herself with some of Rome’s enemies. Antony’s need for money proved to be a lucky break for her. Plutarch claimed that Cleopatra went to this meeting deliberately scheming to seduce Antony and some even claim that she purposefully broke up the alliance between Antony and Octavian. Cleopatra's belief that Caesarion would be accepted as Caesar's heir if she was successful in eradicating Octavin may support this claim. At this meeting Cleopatra requested for Antony to take control of her troubled territory in Cyprus. She also

Claudius Caesar had just lost his third wife, Messalina, due to an affair whih led to her suicidal actions. Despite Claudius’s old age and diminishing appearance, Claudius married his seemingly gorgeous and young niece, Agrippina. Agrippina had an adolescent son, Nero, whom she wanted to become king. Agrippina knew she had to kill Claudius in order for her son to be king and allow her to gain power. She turned to Pallas, whom she had an affair with simultaneously with that of Claudius. Agrippina and Pallas began plotting Claudius’s death along with a handful of other people that they could trust. They understood that it would be tricky to kill Claudius because the entirety of Rome loved him. She had to make his death look as natural as possible so they decided on poison. Agrippina went to a woman named Locusta to get the poison which she would put on a mushroom. The royal family was eating dinner together that night and one of the courses consisted of mushrooms. Claudius loved mushrooms! Normally Claudius gets served first but since he had an idea that Agrippina was up to something, he allowed the others to eat first. This made Agrippina nervous because she did not

Consular Came from noble families – senators who had achieved office of consul and were respected because of their experience and authority

Agrippina the Younger had four main factors that highly influenced her power before her marriage to Claudius. She was born into the Julio-Claudian bloodline making her an Imperial woman of a noble dynasty, she was as a result of her family background reasonably wealthy and educated, she had the backing of the Roman Army as her father Germanicus was the commander of the 5th legion of the army in Germany and finally her two marriages which provided her with wealth and a son to be heir of the throne.

“Agrippina was a formidable adversary. She had political allies at all levels, acquired during Claudius’ reign, and she knew how to exploit her Augustan lineage and descent from Germanicus to the full.” – Griffin

Yet, it was not until after the death of her father in 51 BCE that Cleopatra ascended to the throne and married with her brother Ptolemy XIII, who was ten at the time. The marriage happened as per Egyptian custom and as instructed in her father’s will (Roberts 126). Although Cleopatra was married to her brother, a male with inherent power in the Egyptian culture, he was “kept firmly in the background” (Roberts 126). With the opportunity granted to her by her father’s death, she “made decisions of state” (Roberts 126). Unfortunately, Cleopatra taking over

Nero was a highly influential Roman leader whose actions where both positive for the Roman Empire and also abused his power by doing negative actions in Rome. Nero was born to Gnaeus Domitius Ahenobarbus and Agrippina, the great granddaughter of Augustus in 37 A.D, with the full name of Lucius Domitius Ahenobarbus. He was the last remaining direct male descendant of Augustus. Nero received a good education and was taught by Seneca. He studied Greek, philosophy and rhetoric. After Nero’s father, Gnaeus died in 48 A.D, his mother married her uncle, Claudius who at the time was the emperor. She manipulated Claudius to make Nero his successor instead of his son Britannicus, as well as give Nero his daughter, Octavia's hand in marriage in 50 A.D. In 54 A.D Claudius died, and Agrippina was suspected to have poisoned him. Nero took the throne soon after. Nero claimed that Britannicus had an epileptic seizure which caused his death, but historians believe that Nero poisoned him to get rid of competition.

In fact, Agrippina was the daughter of Claudius's brother, Germanicus and a sister of Gaius Caligula. Someone just believed that Agrippina exiled for involvement in the conspiracy of Gaetulicus; in addition, Agrippina married before, so she was second marriage with Claudius. The main point was the law should be changed to avoid consanguineous marriage because Claudius was Agrippina's uncle, which was really ridiculous of consanguineous marriage. Therefore, consanguineous marriage of Claudius could be the second the political invective. Furthermore, Claudius's marriage to Agrippina could be a disaster, especially in the Claudius's last years. The reason was Agrippina had powerful personality, and she wanted to dominate Claudius. If compared with Claudius's previous empress, Agrippina was the brightest because she was recognized by imperial politics, and Agrippina appeared in official coins and inscriptions. The powerful position of Agrippina could facilitate the advancement of her son Domitius, and Domitius could consolidate the status of Agrippina as well. In fact, Claudius had a natural son named Britannicus but he was still a minor, he was only 13 years old; Claudius really liked Britannicus, and then Claudius began to advance Domitius through various signs of favor. However, Claudius marked Domitius as his successor, he might be influence by Agrippina and had

H.H.Scullard agrees with Plutarchs writing and maintains, after becoming an augur an augur at the age of ten, served with distinction under his brother-in-law Aemilianus at the siege of Carthage (146) and married Claudia, daughter of the Princeps Senatus, Appius Claudius Pulcher. Plutarch maintains soon after his marriage he saw active service in Africa under the command of the younger Scipio. Plutarch adds, `` He also soon showed himself to be the most disciplined and courageous young man of his generation. According to Fannius, while he was with the army many of his comrades came to feel affection for him, and when he left they missed him. After this campaign, Gracchus was elected quaestor under the consul Gaius Hostilius Mancinus in 137, in the war against Numantia. Plutarch, although he states that Mancinus was unlucky, he gives us the picture that Mancinus was an unlucky commander, and in contrast, Gracchus displayed great courage under

concentrates on his mother's sexual relationship with Claudius by making many sexual allusions and berating his mother with them. He states that she seeks out "incestuous pleasure of his bed."(3.4 . l. 90) This exploring of his mother's carnal nature is because he is sexually concerned for

As Emperor Nero continued to rule new speculation formed that his mother was planning to overthrow him with his brother Britannicus who was the actual son of Emperor Claudius. This is because as his mother

Cleopatra married another brother, Ptolemy XIV. Law in Egypt prevented women from ruling, alone which is why she married him. Even though she married Ptolemy XIV she was in love with Caesar. Cleopatra spent the next several months with Caesar travelling along the Nile. In 46 BC Cleopatra gave birth to Caesar’s son who was named Caesarian or little Caesar. She emphasized that it was Caesar’s child and Caesar never formally accepted paternity over the child. Even

In around 85 BC, Julius Caesar’s father had died. About a few years later, while Caesar was 18 years old, he married the daughter of a member of the Popular faction in