How Did Agrippina The Younger Influence Family Background And Status

Claudius, as emperor, was told it was politically necessary to have a partner, upon Messalina’s death, to help function and protect the Principate, one of few reasons for his marriage to Agrippina. It was Pallas who presented Agrippina’s case (as she was an eligible woman) convincingly. Claudius could not ignore her ambitious nature, the fact she was politically skilled, and importantly; a woman of the Julian bloodline. Agrippina’s motives were concentrated solely on herself, and her son, Nero. Agrippina married her uncle in hope that Nero would inherit the Principate. She wanted to promote her son to become emperor (Suetonius), and aspired for political power for herself in regards to the Principate and Claudius. The power gave her the ability to dispose of any enemies who got in her way.

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.

Agrippina was furious Apparently she burst in on Tiberius to remonstrate about the affair when he was making a sacrifice to the deified Augustus

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.

During her time, Agrippina the Younger was able to achieve unprecedented recognition and transcended the boundaries of imperial women to establish herself as a political player. Through her marriage to the Emperor Claudius, she formed a co-ruling alliance that allowed her to manipulate the order of succession to aid her son Nero in becoming Princeps. To a negligible extent, historians agree with Ferrero’s interpretation of Agrippina. Where Ferrero praises Agrippina’s personality, both ancient and modern sources oppose his description of her as ‘intelligent and simple’, often describing her as opportunistic and manipulative. Although they do agree that her upbringing amidst political affairs set her up to becoming a formidable and politically

Cassius Dio insists the empire and Augustus owe an extraordinary amount to Gaius Maecenas, Marcus Agrippa, and to a lesser extent, Livia. While the empire had problems with stability from time to time, the three of them had their roles in cultivating prosperity. The role of lifelong friend and confidante is attributed to Agrippa, as his loyalty ceased to cultivate throughout the years. The trifecta aided Augustus in ruling and improving the empire, while sporadically corralling the Octavian mindset inside of Augustus. Augustus single-handedly appointed Agrippa to settle disputes that arose on the frontier, and in Rome. He was the ultimate plug-n-play general of the empire, and proved his worth early on until his death in 12 B.C through military ventures and building projects. Gaius Maecenas had a profound impact on Augustus’ decision to retain the power that he acquired after defeating Marc Antony and Cleopatra, which shaped the government into what eventually existed in Dio’s time. He also handled important business in Rome while the emperor was absent, acting as a sit-in caesar, if you will. Livia attempted to promote the women of Rome, while also helping Augustus soothe relationships with the latter’s enemies. However, mischievous presumptions loom from Dio around Livia regarding certain disastrous events. Nonetheless, without Livia, Maecenas, and especially Agrippa, Octavian might not have ever had the chance to rule Rome.

Agrippina’s relationship to her stepfather had always been problematic, but it got even worse when the latter was suspected of having played a part in Germanicus’ death. The personal animosity and years of bad blood between the emperor and Agrippina becomes evident on two occasions: after Agrippina fell gravely ill in 26 CE, Tiberius visited his stepdaughter, whom she tearfully begged to be allowed to remarry so that she could find some consolation in her loneliness; Tiberius, however, not wanting to demonstrate weakness, forbade her from doing so. Then, under the pretence that the partes were conspiring of murdering the emperor and seizing the throne, Sejanus, under the auspices of the emperor, instigated a number of trials between 24-29

Tiberius, who served as emperor from 14 to 37 AD, began his rule after the death of his father-in-law, Augustus. Tiberius was a weak ruler, and he understood that ruling Rome was like “holding a wolf by the ears.” When conflict arose in Europe, Tiberius sent his nephew, Germanicus, to deal with it. Germanicus did his job, and this resulted in Tiberius fearing the newest war-hero. To avoid the issue, Germanicus was appointed governor of the remote eastern provinces by his uncle. After the sudden death of Germanicus, people believed that Tiberius had poisoned him. He denied this, but the accusations never died. When he was in need of advice, Tiberius sought the assistance of Sejanus, a cavalry officer and town cheat. Tiberius sought the

She had been the personal tie between Caesar and Pompey, who were by now already drifting apart. Caesar offered Pompey another wife, his grandniece Octavis. Pompey refused, instead choosing to marry Cornelia Metella, daughter of Quintus Caecilius Metellus Scipio, one of Caesar's greatest enemies in 52 B.C. This emphasized Pompey's drift away from Caesar towards the optimates.

Nero’s rise to power was a “long road full of treachery.” (T.V.) It was also full of change such as his name he was not always know as Nero his name was Lucius Domitius Ahenobarbus until his dad had died and his mom married her widowed uncle, who was the emperor of the time, and they changed it to Nero Claudius Divi Claudius Filius Caesar Agustus Germanicus. Later she convinced him to name Nero heir to the throne and allow him take his daughter Octavia as his wife. His adopted brother was reaching age to take the throne but he mysteriously died, “Many suspect that Nero poisoned him.” (biograpy.com, 2017) So, as one can see Nero was a very shady character who would stop at nothing to seize and hold the throne.

Tiberius created a family of his own with his wife Vipsania Agrippina and had a son named Drusus Julius Caesar. Tiberius also adopted his nephew, Germanicus, and raised him as his own. Tiberius

The Portrait Head of Agrippina the Elder is located in the Rome gallery at the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology. This marble sculpture represents Agrippina the Elder. Agrippina the Elder was the daughter of Agrippa, a friend and supporter of the Roman Emperor Augustus. Her mother was Augustus’s daughter Julia. Later, Agrippa the Elder married Augustus’s great nephew Germanicus. She had nine children, one of which who became an emperor, Caligula. Agrippina's husband died, and it was rumored that he had been poisoned. Agrippina was then banished from Rome and tragically died of starvation in exile. Throughout her life, Agrippina was viewed as having a high social status. The creator of the Portrait Head of Agrippina the Elder had used elements such as hair style, facial expression, and female characteristics to represent Agrippina as

Gaius Julius Caesar Octavian hereinafter referred to “Augustus”, was given the title of imperium by age of 19, to gain this, he amassed a private army and marched on the Senate in Revenge for his adopted father’s murder. Augustus developed a peaceful and cultural Ancient Rome . In contrast, both Caesar and Sulla before him, were appointed to dictator under the Lex Valeria (Valerian law) , both had ultimate goals of monarchy, but where Caesar, used the people to ascertain if this would be accepted , Sulla ruled with an iron fist.

At this stage in the Roman Empire things were extremely dangerous and many power struggles within the royal family were arising. With the demise of the