Transcript Training - Swansea University

The role of Agrippina
Dr David W.J. Gill
University of Wales Swansea
Introduction
Agrippina’s role
 The people behind Nero
 Agrippina’s death

The role of Agrippina
Suetonius probably read her memoirs (now
lost)
 Tacitus Ann. 13: ‘The senate voted her two
official attendants and the Priesthood of
Claudius’
 appears on coinage with Nero

The role of Agrippina
favoured Claudius’ son Britannicus in 55
 59 opposed Nero’s affair with Poppaea
Sabina

– prefect of Misenum to drown her
– this marked the end of the golden age
The death of M. Junius
Silanus

Tacitus, Ann. 13: ‘The first casualty of the
new reign was the governor of Asia, M.
Junius Silanus. His death was treacherously
contrived by Agrippina, without Nero’s
knowledge ... Agrippina was afraid that he
would avenge her murder of his brother ...’
Death of Narcissus

Tacitus, Ann. 13
– ‘Equally hurried was the death of Claudius’
freedman Narcissus. … Imprisoned and harshly
treated, the threat of imminent execution drove
him to suicide. The emperor, however, was
sorry: Narcissus’ greed and extravagance
harmonized admirably with his own still latent
vices’
Restraints on Agrippina

Tacitus Ann. 13.2
– Sex. Afranius Burrus

‘by a soldier’s attention to detail and strictness of
behaviour’
– L. Annaeus Seneca

‘by his lessons in eloquence and his combination of
dignity with affability’
– ‘Agrippina’s violence, inflamed by all the
passions of ill-gotten tyranny, encountered their
united opposition’
Sex. Afranius Burrus
equestrian procurator of Livia Drusilla,
Tiberius and Claudius
 from Gallia Narbonensis
 favourite of Iulia Agrippina
 sole prefect of Praetorian Guard in 51
(Claudius)

– continued under Nero
Sex. Afranius Burrus
55: survived charge of conspiracy
 59: controlled Nero’s affairs after murder of
his mother
 opposed Nero’s divorce from Octavia
 died in 62:

– Suetonius and Cassius Dio suggest that he was
poisoned
L. Annaeus Seneca
from Corduba in southern Spain, 4BC-AD 1
 equestrian family
 second son of Elder Seneca

– brother was Gallio, governor of Achaia

exiled for adultery in 41 under Claudius
– recalled through Iulia Agrippina 49

appointed tutor to Nero
Responsibilities of Seneca
amicus principis
 write the emperor’s speeches
 exercise patronage
 manage intrigue!

Seneca’s fall from power
compromised by murder of Britannicus (55)
 59 criticised for murder of Agrippina
 59 criticised in the Senate

– Tac. Ann. 13.42: how did he made 300 million
HS in four years?
62 death of Burrus
 65 forced to commit suicide for alleged
links with Piso’s conspiracy

Jealousy over Acte
Nero had affair with a slave Acte
 Agrippina saw her as a ‘rival’ (Tac. Ann. 13)
 Nero tried to win back his mother’s favour

Britannicus

Agrippina claimed that Britannicus was the
true heir
– son of Claudius

When Britannicus acquired the toga virilis
Nero invited him to sing
– growing jealousy and hated him (Tac. Ann. 13)
– ‘afraid that the common people might be less
attached to Claudius’ adopted son than to his
real one’ (Suet. Nero 33)
Britannicus

Britannicus poisoned at dinner
–
–
–
–
assisted by Locusta, a poisoner (Suet. Ner. 33)
‘Nero lay back unconcernedly’
‘here was Nero murdering a relation’
‘the poor boy had “long been subject to these
epileptic seizures”’ (Suet. Nero 33)
Murdering relations

Nero later referred to mushrooms as ‘food
of the gods’
– Suet. Ner. 33
Agrippina’s reaction
supported Octavia, Nero’s wife
 Nero tried to alienate her by

– removing her bodyguard
– giving her a separate palace

Nero started plotting to kill his mother
Nero’s reaction

Suet. Nero. 34
– ‘The over-watchful, over critical eye that
Agrippina kept on whatever Nero said or did
proved more than he could stand. He first tried
to embarrass her by frequent threats to abdicate
and go into retirement in Rhodes’
The plot to kill Agrippina

Suet. Nero 34
– tried to poison her 3 times
– ‘he rigged up a machine in the ceiling of her
bedroom which would dislodge the panels and
drop them on her while she slept’
– a collapsible cabin-boat
– accidental collision with her galley near Baiae

and offered her a collapsible boat for return trip!
– but Agrippina swam to safety
– eventually had her killed
Death of Agrippina

Tacitus, Ann. 13
– Anicetus broke into her home
– ‘Strike here!’ - pointing to her womb