Agrippina: Sex, Power, and Politics in the Early EmpireAgrippina the Younger attained a level of power in first-century Rome unprecedented for a woman. According to ancient sources, she achieved her success by plotting against her brother, the emperor Caligula, murdering her husband, the emperor Claudius, and controlling her son, the emperor Nero, by sleeping with him. Modern scholars tend to accept this verdict. But in his dynamic biography--the first on Agrippina in English--Anthony Barrett paints a startling new picture of this influential woman. Drawing on the latest archaeological, numismatic, and historical evidence, Barrett argues that Agrippina has been misjudged. Although she was ambitious, says Barrett, she made her way through ability and determination rather than by sexual allure, and her political contributions to her time seem to have been positive. After Agrippina's marriage to Claudius there was a marked decline in the number of judicial executions and there was close cooperation between the Senate and the emperor; the settlement of Cologne, founded under her aegis, was a model of social harmony; and the first five years of Nero's reign, while she was still alive, were the most enlightened of his rule. According to Barrett, Agrippina's one real failing was her relationship with her son, the monster of her own making who had her murdered in horrific and violent circumstances. Agrippina's impact was so lasting, however, that for some 150 years after her death no woman in the imperial family dared assume an assertive political role. |
Contents
Background | 1 |
Family | 2 |
Daughter | 3 |
Sister | 4 |
Niece 71 | 5 |
Wife | 6 |
Mother | 7 |
The End 9 Sources | 145 |
The Husbands of Domitia and Lepida | 233 |
Appendix III | 234 |
Appendix IV | 235 |
Appendix V | 236 |
SC on Gold and Silver Coins of Nero | 243 |
The Final Days of Agrippina | 244 |
Abbreviations | 247 |
Notes and References | 252 |
95 | 179 |
143 | 181 |
13 | 199 |
22 | 200 |
40 | 203 |
The Year of Agrippina the Youngers Birth | 230 |
254 | |
282 | |
284 | |
252 | 295 |
Other editions - View all
Agrippina: Sex, Power, and Politics in the Early Empire Anthony A. Barrett No preview available - 1999 |
Common terms and phrases
accession adoption Aemilius affair Agrippa Agrippa Postumus Agrippina Augusta Agrippina the Elder Agrippina the Younger Antonia Apocolocyntosis appointment Arval Asia Augustus Baiae Bauli behaviour Britannicus brother Caesar Caligula career centurion certainly charge claim Claudian Claudius clearly coins consul consulship daughter Dio's Divus Domitius Drusilla Drusus earlier early emperor evidence exile fact father favour freedmen Fucine Lake Gaetulicus Gaius Germanicus honour husband imperial family incest inscription involved issue Josephus Julia Julio-Claudian Junia Junius Silanus later Lepidus Livia Livilla Lollia Lucius Marcus marriage married Messalina mother murder Narcissus Nero Nero's Octavia palace Palatine Pallas Passienus Pliny NH poison political Poppaea praetorian guard prefect princeps probably provinces recorded reign role Roman Rome seems Sejanus senate senatorial Seneca and Burrus sestertius sister sources status Suet Suetonius suggests suicide Suillius supposedly survived Syme Tacitus Tiberius tradition Vespasian villa Vitellius wife woman women