Agrippa - Military Commander and Friend of Augustus
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Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa was a boyhood
friend of Augustus and a renowned military commander on land and sea,
winning the famous battle of Actium against the forces of Marcus
Antonius and Cleopatra. Augustus intended Agrippa to be his successor, and had him marry his
daughter Julia in 21 BC. However Agrippa died before Augustus, of
natural causes in March, 12 BC after a rigorous winter campaign in
Pannonia. He was father of Gaius and Lucius
Caesars, Agrippa Postumus, Julia and Agrippina Senior; grandfather of
Caligula, and great-grandfather of Nero.
Also see ERIC - Agrippa
M.
Agrippa Vipsanius, a celebrated Roman, who obtained a victory over
Sextus Pompey and favored the cause of Augustus at the battles of Actium
and Philippi, where he behaved with great valor. He advised his
imperial friend to re-establish the republican government
at Rome, but he was overruled by Macaenas. In his expedition in Gaul and
Germany, he obtained several victories, but refused the honors of a
triumph, and turned his liberality towards embellishing Rome, and the
raising of magnificent buildings, of which the Pantheon still
exists.
After he had retired for two years to Mitylene, in
consequence of a quarrel with Marcellus, Augustus recalled him, and as
proof of his regard, gave him his daughter Julia in marriage, and left
him the car of the empire, during an absence of two years, employed in
visiting the Roman provinces of Greece and Asia. He died,
universally lamented, at Rome, at 51 years old, in 12 B.C. and his body
was placed in the tomb which Augustus had prepared for himself. He had
been married three times, to Pomponia, daughter of Atticus, to Marcella,
daughter of Octavia, and to Julia, by whom he had five children, Caius
and Lucius Caesares, Posthumus Agrippa, Agrippina and Julia.
References
Obverse legends
CAESARAVGVSVS
(AUGUSTUS
AND AGRIPPA)
MAGRIPPA
MAGRIPPACOSTER
MAGRIPPALFCOSIII
IMPDIVIF
(AUGUSTUS
AND AGRIPPA)
IMPDIVIFPP (AUGUSTUS
AND AGRIPPA)
IMPTVESPAVGRESTSC (RESTITUTION BY
TITUS)
IMPDAVGRESTSC
(RESTITUTION BY DOMITIAN)
MARCVS
VIPSANIVS AGRIPPA was born about 63 BC to obscure parents in
Rome. He became a friend of Octavian (Augustus - q.v.) early
in his life, and they were with Caesar (who was Octavian's grand-uncle)
in Spain in 45 BC, from whence they were sent to Apollonia in Epirus
(Pojani, Albania) for tutoring by the Greek rhetorician Apollodorus of
Pergamum. While there they also trained with the nearby
legions which Caesar had assembled there for a proposed campaign against
the Parthians, which was prevented by Caesar's assassination in Rome on
the Ides of March (March 15) in 44 BC. Agrippa was among the
friends who urged Octavian to proceed to Rome upon hearing of Caesar's
death.
Octavian arrived in
Rome in late April after hearing that he had been designated as Caesar's
son and main heir. Mark Antony refused to turn over Caesar's
funds or explain why the assassins went unpunished, thus ensuring
Octavian's undying enmity. Octavian
borrowed money to raise a legion, with the assistance of
Agrippa. The
Senate declared Antony a public enemy and sent an army and
Octavian's
legion against him, and in April of 43 BC the combined forces
forced
Antony to retreat. Unfortunately the Senate refused to
reward Octavian or his troops, and he marched on Rome. Angry
with the Senate, he had Antony's condemnation revoked. Finally
in November of 43 BC he met at Bononia (Bologna, Italy) with Antony and
Lepidus (Caesar's close colleague and consul with him in 46 BC) and
there the Second Triumvirate was formed on November 27, 43 BC.
After
the Triumvirs defeated Cassius and Brutus at Philippi in 42 BC, they
split the Roman world among themselves. Octavian soon found
that Sextus Pompey from his base in Sicily was cutting off African food
supplies to Rome. Antony's wife Fulvia and Antony's youngest
brother, Lucius Antonius (consul in 41 BC), added to Octavian's trouble
by constantly stirring resentment, and Octavian
finally attacked them at Perusia (Perugia, Italy).
Agrippa played a
leading role in the siege. The town surrendered, and
although Octavian
pardoned Antony's relatives, he plundered and burned the town, as
well
as slaughtering the entire town council, gaining a reputation for
ferocity. He tried to solve his problem with Pompey in
40 BC by
marrying Scribonia, a relative of Pompey. She bore
Octavian's only child, a daughter named Julia
(Agrippa's future wife), in 39 BC. Pompey ignored the
marriage and
allied with Antony, who was returning to Italy to recruit
troops. Octavian
blocked him and war was only averted when the veteran legions
refused
to fight each other, and a peace conference at Brundisium
(Brindisi,
Italy) was arranged in October of 40 BC.
In
38 BC Octavian sent Agrippa to Gaul where he suppressed a rebellion in
Aquitania. Octavian himself attacked Pompey, gaining Sardinia
but being decisively defeated in an attempt to take Sicily.
Agrippa returned to Rome in 37 BC and served as consul for the first
time. That year Mark Antony arranged for Agrippa to marry the
fourteen-year-old Caecilia Attica, who became the mother of Vipsania
Agrippina (not Agrippinna Sr.), who became the first wife of
Tiberius. Octavian
commanded Agrippa to construct a fleet for another attempt
against
Pompey, and summoned Antony from the east. Agrippa not
only built the
fleet, but by digging two canals he joined two large inland lakes
to the
sea, thus giving himself a perfect sheltered training
area. Antony and Octavian met at Tarentum (Taranto, Italy) in
37 BC to renew the Second Triumvirate and discuss Pompey.
Accordingly
in 36 BC Antony, Lepidus, and Octavian launched a coordinated assault
on Pompey's Sicilian stronghold. Agrippa began with a small
but important victory over Pompey's admiral Demochares near Mylae
(Milazzo, Sicily), because Pompey came to help Demochares, and that
allowed Octavian and Lepidus to land and quickly overrun the
island. Agrippa scored a complete victory on September 3 over
Pompey's fleet near Naulochus in Sicily, a battle from which only
seventeen of Pompey's ships escaped. Pompey fled but was later
captured and executed.
Octavian
and Agrippa campaigned from 35 BC until 33 BC in Illyricum and
Dalmatia, and succeeded in making the northern reaches of Italy
safer
from barbarian incursions than ever before. Octavian
then began a campaign to beautify and aggrandize the city of Rome,
building numerous public buildings and works such as
aquaducts. Much of that work was entrusted to his friend
Agrippa, who served as aedile in 33 BC (even though he had served as
consul in 37 BC).
Octavian
then began a propaganda war against Antony, characterizing him as
immoral (for his affair with Cleopatra, Queen of Egypt) and given over
to foreign ways. The 'cold war' intensified throughout 33 BC
when Octavian served as consul for the second time, and Antony finally
divorced Octavian's sister Octavia in 32 BC. Octavian declared
war in late 32 BC.
In early
31 BC Octavian and Agrippa sailed for the east, where Antony had been
assembling troops at Ephesus (Selcuk, Turkey). In late 32 BC
or early 31 BC Antony moved to Actium (Akra Nikolaos, Greece)
where the inevitable clash occurred in a sea battle on September
2, 31
BC. Agrippa once more was Octavian's victorious admiral,
scoring a complete victory, but Antony and Cleopatra escaped back to
Alexandria, with about a fourth of their ships. When Octavian
finally entered Alexandria on August 3, 30 BC, Antony and Cleopatra
committed suicide and Octavian was unchallenged as the ruler of the
Roman world, in command of sixty legions. Agrippa meanwhile
had returned to Rome after Actium helped govern until Octavian's return
to Rome in 29 BC.
In 28 BC
Octavian was co-consul with Agrippa, Agrippa's second consulship, and
together they had a census
conducted and pruned the membership of the Senate from 1,000 to
800
men. In Agrippa's second consulship, he married
Augustus' niece
Marcella. The fate of his first wife Caecilia Attica
is unknown, although it is known that her tutor was dismissed on
suspicion of improper relations with her. Marcella and
Agrippa had a
daughter named Vipsania, who married P. Quinctilius Varus, who
gained everlasting infamy when he and three legions were massacred in
Germany in 9 AD.
27 BC saw
another joint consulship of Octavian and Agrippa (Agrippa's third and
last), and a most startling re-organization of the government.
Octavian
had formerly essentially ruled simply as the winner of the civil
wars,
but on January 13, 27 BC he appeared before the Senate and offered
to
surrender his powers to the Senate and the Roman people.
The Senate
decided that he should accept proconsular power for ten years over
the
provinces which had the most precarious military
situations. The Senate
assumed nominal control over the rest, although Octavian through
his 'auctoritas' (influence and moral authority) still maintained some
control. On January 16 the grateful Senate met and voted
Octavian many honors, including the title of Augustus.
Agrippa's third consulship also saw the beginning of the construction of
the Pantheon in Rome, a temple dedicated to all of the gods and one of
the most famous buildings of antiquity still standing. It's
massive dedicatory inscription still ascribes it to his third
consulship, even though it was rebuilt during the reign of Hadrian
(q.v.).
Augustus'
health was in such a bad state after a Spanish campaign that in
23 BC
he gave his signet ring to Agrippa, establishing a successor since
his
obvious successor, his son-in-law Marcellus, was still too
inexperienced. Due to his continued ill health, Augustus had
the Senate grant Agrippa proconsular powers, and dispatched him to the
east to deal with the Parthians. Augustus did not stand for
election as consul in 22 BC, and serious disturbances followed when the
food supply began to wane. Augustus stepped in to ensure the
food supply, and afterward went to Sicily, Greece, Samos, and Asia, not
arriving back at Rome
until 19 BC. In that time there had been disturbances
over the
consular elections, and that was the primary reason Agrippa was
recalled
from the east in 21, although the timing fit well with Augustus'
desire
to make him his successor through marriage with Julia.
When Augustus' son-in-law Marcellus
died in late 23 BC at the age of twenty, he desired to make
Agrippa his
permanent candidate for successor, and had him divorce his second
wife
Marcella, and marry Augustus' only child Julia (the widow of
Marcellus) in 21 BC. They had three sons, Gaius Julius Caesar
(born 20 BC), Lucius Julius Caesar (born 17 BC), and Agrippa
Postumus, was born after Agrippa's death in 12 BC. They had
two daughters, Julia (born about 19 BC) and Vipsania Agrippina (born
about 14 BC - see AGRIPPINA SR.). Vipsania Agrippina married
Germanicus (q.v.) and became the mother of Caligula (q.v.), and thus
Agrippa was to become the grandfather of an Augustus (though Caligula
did not come to power until nearly fifty years after Agrippa's
death).
In
20 BC Agrippa was sent to quell disturbances in Gaul, and in 19 BC he
finally put an end to the disturbances in Spain, which had ruined
Augustus' health nearly five years before.
In
18 BC Augustus
had his proconsular power renewed for five years and arranged for
Agrippa to receive the tribunician power and to have his
proconsular
power renewed for another five years. Although legally
Agrippa thus
became a virtual co-ruler with Augustus, in fact he was clearly in
the second position due to the "auctoritas" of Augustus. The
Senate membership was further reduced in 18 BC from 800 to 600
men.
Agrippa's health had
rapidly failed after a rigorous winter (13 BC/12 BC) campaign in
Pannonia, and he died in late March of 12 BC, upsetting Augustus' plan
for the succession. Agrippa showed complete loyalty to
Augustus
during his life, and bequeathed most of his property to him upon
his
death, although he also left bequests to the Roman
people. After a
state funeral he was buried in the Mausoleum of Augustus.
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...
by
Augustus to be amongst the most familiar and intimate of his friends,
and afterwards to become his son-in-law. Born in the year of Rome 691
(63 before Christ), of a family not highly distinguished, Agrippa was
...
Portrait of Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa- Joe Geranio/ Cris Defeu