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XXI

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Agrippina Junior, Sister of Caligula, Wife of Claudius, Mother of Nero
(Agrippina II)

Ancient Roman Coins of Agrippina Junior in the Forum Ancient Coins consignment shop.

Agrippina Jr., daughter of Agrippina Senior and Germanicus, was born in 16 A.D. She was married to Cneaus Domitius Ahenobarbus, by whom she had the future emperor Nero. Exiled by her brother Caligula, she was recalled by Claudius, her uncle, and married him soon after. She was murdered by her son, Nero, in 59 A.D.

Also see ERIC - AGRIPPINA II

Photo Taken by Joe Geranio (may be used if credit is given)

Roman, about A.D. 50
Marble
H: 12 5/8 x W: 10 5/8 x D: 11 in.
70.AA.101

Roman writers characterized the Roman empress Agrippina the Younger (A.D. 15 - 59) as a scheming power-hungry woman. Born into the extended Imperial family, a sister of the emperor Caligula, Agrippina increased her power and status by marrying her uncle Claudius, the reigning emperor, in A.D. 48. She urged her new husband to make Nero, her son by a previous marriage, the heir to the throne. He agreed and in A.D. 54, Claudius died. It was rumored that his wife had poisoned him. She wielded extensive political power in the early reign of her son, who was only 17 years old when he took the throne. By A.D. 59, however, Nero was tired of his meddling mother and had her killed.

Portraits of Agrippina were produced during the reigns of the emperors Caligula, Claudius, and Nero. They fit an overall style used for depicting the reigning Julio-Claudian dynasty. Although the portraits of the male members of the dynasty became more naturalistic over time, the women retain an ageless, classicizing style enlivened by elaborate coiffures. Agrippina is distinguished by her narrow face, dimpled chin, and protruding upper lip. She wears her hair parted in the middle and pulled back, with tight curls surrounding her face.

Agrippina Minor- Joe Geranio


Moneta Historical Research

IULIA AGRIPPINA was born at Oppidum Ubiorum (Cologne, Germany) on November 6, 15 to Germanicus and Vipsania Agrippina (see AGRIPPINA SR.). Her paternal grandparents were Nero Claudius Drusus and Antonia , and her maternal grandparents were Agrippa and Julia, the daughter of Augustus. The marriage of Germanicus and Agrippina Sr. produced nine children, of whom two died in infancy and one in early childhood. Those who lived to adulthood included three sons and two daughters besides Agrippina Jr. The sons were Nero and Drusus Caesars (q.v. - lived 6-31 and 7-33, respectively) and Gaius (see CALIGULA - lived 12-41), and the daughters were Julia (known as Livilla, though not the wife of Drusus - lived 18-42) and Julia Drusilla (known as Drusilla - lived 16-38). Agrippina Jr. was thus the sister of the Augustus Caligula.

She was born at Oppidum Ubiorum because her father in 13 had begun a four-year-campaign against the Germans. His great successes led to his recall in 17 by the jealous Tiberius , who then sent him to the east. There he met a mysterious death near Antioch on October 10, 19, and Agrippina Sr. returned to Rome spreading the word that he had been poisoned on order of Tiberius. That provoked a "cold war" between the house of Germanicus and Tiberius, although while Germanicus' grandmother, Livia (Julia Augusta), lived, Tiberius could do them no physical harm.

In 28 Agrippina Jr. was married to Gnaeus Domitius Ahenobarbus, one of the most depraved and detested men in all of Rome. This was arranged by Tiberius, who was Agrippina's step-grandfather through his second marriage to Augustus' daughter Julia after Agrippa died.

Julia Augusta died in 29, and that opened the way for the persecution of Germanicus' family. The Praetorian Praefect Sejanus was able to persuade Tiberius that Agrippina was spreading sedition, and in 29 she and her oldest son Nero Caesar, who was charged with moral impropriety, were arrested and exiled, she to the island of Pandateria (Ventotene, Italy) and he to the island of Pontia (Isole Ponziane, Italy). Her middle son Drusus Caesar was arrested in 30 AD and imprisoned in the palace. Only the eighteen-year-old Caligula remained free, presumably since he was deemed too young to be a serious threat. Agrippina Sr., Nero Caesar, and Drusus Caesar were to all die in prison by the year 33. Agrippina Jr.'s brother Caligula remained, and he became Augustus upon Tiberius' death on March 16, 37. Caligula set about to heap honors on all of his family members, living and dead. Agrippina Jr.'s name was associated with Caligula's in oaths and vows.

 In December of 37 Agrippina Jr.'s only son, Lucius Domitius Ahenobarbus (see NERO), was born at Antium (Anzio, Italy). According to the Roman historian Dio Cassius, the elder Ahenobarbus prophesied his son's future when he remarked, "It would not be possible for a good man to be born from me and my wife."

Unfortunately the reign of Caligula took a sharp turn for the worst in late 37, and even those closest to him soon found themselves plotting to kill him. A conspiracy against him was formed in 39 by the commander in Germany, Gnaeus Cornelius Lentulus Gaetulicus (consul in 26), which involved his sisters Agrippina and Livilla (Drusilla had died the previous year), and his brother-in-law (the late Drusilla's husband and Caligula's intended successor) Aemilius Lepidus. Gaetulicus and Lepidus were executed and Caligula's sisters were banished to the island of Pontia (Isole Ponziane, Italy), not to return until the reign of Claudius . The conspirators' properties were also seized. The young Nero stayed with his paternal aunt Domitia Lepida during his mother's exile. The elder Ahenobarbus, who did not accompany his wife into exile, died of dropsy sometime in late 39 or 40.

Finally on January 24, 41, Caligula fell victim to a plot led by Praetorian officers and a few Senators. After much debate about returning to a Republican government, the Senate yielded to the wishes of the Praetorians and confirmed Caligula's uncle Claudius as Augustus on January 25, 41. He did not annul Caligula's acts 'in toto', and indeed he prohibited the Senate from enacting "damnatio memoriae" legislation, but he did allow the daughters of his brother Germanicus to return from exile and restored their property to them. Agrippina's ambition and Claudius' age (he was fifty-one when she returned from exile) led her to begin scheming to put her son Nero on the throne. As a first step she married one of the richest men in Rome, Crispus Passienus.

A dramatic opportunity to advance her agenda opened up in late 48 when Claudius' third wife Messalina actually married Gaius Silius (consul designate for 49) while Claudius was on an inspection trip to Ostia! The motives have never been established, although speculation centers on Silius' possible ambition to replace Claudius and Messalina's ambition to establish her son Britannicus on the throne, with she and Silius as regents. In any event, Claudius was stunned into inaction, but his freedman Narcissus begged charge for a day and speedily executed both Silius and Messalina, who was then subjected to "damnatio memoriae". Immediately after the crisis Claudius had asked the Praetorians to kill him if he ever married again, but his weak position soon demanded a union that would enhance his prestige. The court swung into action to find a wife, and debate soon narrowed to three possibilities: Aelia Paetina (Claudius' second wife, divorced in 37), Lollia Paullina (Caligula's third wife, divorced in 38 or 39), and Agrippina Jr. By far the most illustrious match was with Agrippina, however she happened to be the Emperor's niece! She not only had illustrious parents but had won sympathy in 39 when she was banished by her brother Caligula for her part in the conspiracy of Gaetulicus. Additionally she would bring her popular son Lucius Domitius Ahenobarbus (Nero), four years older than Claudius' son Britannicus. The Senate obligingly swept away a law prohibiting marriage to a niece, and Claudius and Agrippina Jr. were accordingly married, probably on January 1, 49. One of Agrippina's first actions was to have the philosopher Seneca recalled from exile so that he might tutor Nero, a move that she was to regret later. Another was to plot the destruction of the woman she considered to be her foremost rival, Lollia Paulina, who was charged with sorcery and forced to commit suicide in 49. Agrippina Jr. was granted the title of Augusta on February 25, 50, and her son was adopted by Claudius at the same time and given the name Nero Claudius Drusus Germanicus Caesar. Her birthplace, the town of Oppidum Ubiorum, was renamed Colonia Agrippinensis in 50 in her honor.

Agrippina Jr. pushed very hard to have Nero gain pre-eminence over Britannicus. Claudius accepted his fifth and last consulship in 51, possibly for the occasion of prematurely presenting Nero his "toga virilis" in a public ceremony. Nero was also named "Princeps Juventutis" (first or prince of youths) and given pro-consular powers outside of Rome in 51 and at the age of fifteen in 53 he was married to Octavia, Claudius' daughter by Messalina. Octavia had been engaged to Lucius Junius Silanus, but Lucius Vitellius, the father of the future emperor and the man who had convinced the Senate to permit Agrippina's marriage to Claudius, accused Silanus of crimes which eventually led to Silanus' suicide. It was one of the first, but certainly not the last, of the treacherous acts which paved the way for Nero to become Augustus.

Agrippina was instrumental in convincing Claudius to replace his two Praetorian Praefects, Geta and Crispinus, with Sextus Afranius Burrus, who was loyal to Agrippina.
 Claudius apparently named both Nero and Britannicus as his joint heirs in his will, and indeed his earlier willingness to heap honors upon Agrippina's son Nero seem to have been a "good faith" effort, supposing that the same would be done for his son Britannicus when he came of normal age (14) in February of 55, if not earlier (Nero had been pronounced of age when only thirteen years and three months old). Although Claudius had been in ill health for several years, most attribute his death on October 13, 54 to poison given him by order of Agrippina, with him he had been recently quarreling over the succession. Apparently Claudius was wanting to publicly give Britannicus equal honors with Nero and Agrippina was finding reasons for not doing so. The public would be curious if the Emperor did not proclaim his own son by the time Britannicus was 14, and that forced Agrippina's hand. Upon his death his will was not publicly read, probably because Agrippina wished to suppress the fact that Britannicus was to be an equal heir. With no directions to the contrary and at the Praetorian Praefect Burrus' urging, only Claudius' adopted son Nero was the natural successor, since he had been laden with honors and titles, while the younger Britannicus had not yet even come of age. Nero was accordingly confirmed as Augustus by the Senate on October 13, 54.

Almost immediately a rift developed between Agrippina and her son, since both were determined to rule. Agrippina would remind Nero that if she supported Britannicus the public would almost certainly demand that Nero share power with him when he came of age.

Nero had no intentions of letting Britannicus come of age, and he was accordingly poisoned on the seventeen-year-old Nero's orders two months later in mid-December, 54, leaving Nero as the sole claimant to the throne. In the early part of his reign, Nero's two closest advisors were Seneca and Burrus, and although they both owed their positions to Agrippina they switched loyalties when they saw that Agrippina would be destructive to the principate in the long run. Agrippina was also jealous of Nero's lovers, namely a freedwoman named Acte and then Poppaea Sabina (who became his second wife in 62), and those jealousies only added to the acrimonious relationship with her son. Agrippina was given a modest home outside of Rome, and then accused of plotting against Nero, but was acquitted. She then tried to smooth relations, even to the point of incest, according to the talk of the times.

Nevertheless Nero soon resolved to be rid of her, and began to plot accidents which might befall her, since it would be unseemly for the Augustus to murder his mother, and one of illustrious lineage at that. He first planned to have her bedroom at her villa collapse upon her, but later gave the project over to his freedman Anicetus. He decided to build a ship which would collapse while at sea, and Agrippina was induced to board the ship at Baiae (Baia, Italy) in March of 59. While in the Bay of Naples, the command was given and the ship collapsed. Agrippina only had two retainers with her, and one of them was killed instantly, while the other, a lady named Acerronia Polla, was thrown into the water. She loyally began screaming that someone should save the Empress-mother, and therefore being mistaken in the darkness and confusion for Agrippina, her brains were immediately clubbed out with an oar. Agrippina meanwhile had been thrown into the water and witnessed what had happened to Acerronia Polla, and therefore determined to swim for shore. She was picked up in a small boat in the vicinity and conveyed to shore. She immediately sent word to Nero, who was nearby, of the "terrible accident", and hoped that he would not be so bold as to simply assassinate her, particularly since the countryside had heard of the "accident" and well-wishers were gathering at her door. Nero, Seneca, and Burrus quickly conferred and decided that she must be immediately put to death, although Burrus said that the Praetorian Guards had too much respect for Caesar's family and the memory of Germanicus to do the deed. Anicetus was again summoned and commissioned to simply murder Agrippina. He gathered a small band of marines and went to Agrippina, who had only one female attendant with her. The attendant fled, and Agrippina, seeing that the end had come, bared her abdomen and begged that they should begin by piercing the belly which had produced such a monster as Nero, and they were only too happy to oblige her. After her death Nero is reported to have examined her naked body, commenting to friends about her faults and perfections, and finally joking that he did not believe that he had so beautiful a mother. Nero reported to the Senate that he had been compelled to have her killed because she was plotting against his life.


References

American Numismatic Society (ANS) Collections Database Online - http://numismatics.org/search/search
Banti, A. & L. Simonetti. Corpus Nummorum Romanorum. (Florence, 1972-1979).
Burnett, A., M. Amandry & P.P. Ripollès. Roman Provincial Coinage I: From the death of Caesar to the death of Vitellius (44 BC-AD 69). (London, 1992 and supplement).
Calicó, X. The Roman Avrei, Vol. One: From the Republic to Pertinax, 196 BC - 193 AD. (Barcelona, 2003).
Calicó, E. Xavier. The Roman Avrei, Vol. I: From the Republic to Pertinax, 196 BC - 193 AD. (Barcelona, 2003).
Cohen, H. Description historique des monnaies frappées sous l'Empire Romain, Vol. 1: Pompey to Domitian. (Paris, 1880).
Giard, J.-B. Le monnayage de l'atelier de Lyon, De Claude Ier à Vespasien (41-78 après J.-C.), et au temps de Clodius Albinus (196-197 après J.-C.). (Wetteren, 2000).
Giard, J-B. Bibliothèque National Catalogue Monnaies de L'Empire Romain II: De Tebère à Néron. (Paris, 1988).
King, C. Roman Quinarii from the Republic to Diocletian and the Tetrarchy. (Oxford, 2007).
Mac Dowall, D.W. The Western Coinages of Nero. ANSNNM 161. (New York, 1979).
Mattingly, H. & R. Carson. Coins of the Roman Empire in the British Museum, Vol 1: Augustus to Vitellius. (London, 1923).
Robinson, A. Roman Imperial Coins in the Hunter Coin Cabinet, University of Glasgow, Vol. I. Augustus to Nerva. (Oxford, 1962).
Seaby, H. & R. Loosley. Roman Silver Coins, Vol. II: Tiberius to Commodus. (London, 1979).
Sear, D. Roman Coins and Their Values, The Millennium Edition, Volume One, The Republic and the Twelve Caesars 280 BC - AD 86. (London, 2000).
Sutherland, C. The Roman Imperial Coinage, Vol. I, From 39 BC to AD 69. (London, 1984).
Toynbee, J. Roman medallions. ANSNS 5. (New York, 1944).
Vagi, D. Coinage and History of the Roman Empire. (Sidney, 1999).
von Kaenel, H.-M. "Britannicus, Agrippina Minor und Nero in Thrakien" in SNR 63 (1984).


Obverse legends

AGRIPPAVGDIVICLAVDNERONISCAESMATER
AGRIPPINAAVGGERMANICIFCAESARISAVG
AGRIPPINAAVGVSTACAESARISAVG
AGRIPPINAEAVGVSTAE
NEROCLAVDDIVICLAVDFCAESARAVGGERMANI
NEROCLAVDDIVIFCAESAVGGERMIMPTRPCOS
TICLAVDCAESAVGAGRIPPAVGVSTA
TICLAVDCAESARAVGGERMPMTRIBPOTPP


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