# A Cyclopaedia of Female Biography/Agrippina, Julia

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AGRIPPINA, JULIA,
Great-granddaughter of Augustus, and daughter of Germanicus and Agrippina, was born amidst the excitement of war, in a Roman camp, on the shores of the Rhine, and reared under the laurels of her father's conquests, and the halo of her mother's grandeur. Her father's death occurring at a very early period of her life, her first perception of the career opened to her might have been derived from the sympathy and respect accorded by the Roman people to her family, even in the presence of her father's murderers.
Some historians have attributed to her a spirit of vengeance, which, though the accusation is not well substantiated, might indeed have been fostered by the trials of her life, commencing with her early estrangement from her glorious mother, which was followed by her persecution, first by the infamous Sejanus, and after the death of her husband Domitius, by her brother Caligula—who accused her before the senate, of participation in a ​conspiracy, forced them to condemn her, and had her driven into exile, where she remarried in constant fear of a violent death.
On the death of Caligula, Agrippina, recalled from exile, was married to the consul Crispinus, whose sudden death was ascribed by her enemies to poison administered by his wife. Five years after this, Pallas proposed her to Claudius, as the successor of Messalina; and after the interval of a year, during which Agrippina had much to contend with from rivalry and intrigue, the obstacle opposed to this marriage by the ties of consanguinity was relieved by a special law, and the daughter of Germanicus ascended the throne of Augustus, and ruled the empire from that moment, in the name of her imbecile husband. Under her brilliant and vigorous administration, faction was controlled, order re-established, and that system of espionage abolished which had filled Rome with informers and their victims. The reserve and dignity of her deportment produced a reform in the manners of the imperial palace, and her influence over her husband was of a most salutary nature.
Tacitus has loaded the memory of Agrippina with the imputation of inordinate ambition, and, though there is probably considerable calumny in these charges, it may be supposed that a temperament like hers, did not shrink from the arbitrary and cruel acts which might be thought necessary to her safety or advancement. Still, the woman must be judged by the circumstances under which she lived, and with reference to the morality of her contemporaries; and, so judged, she rises immeasurably superior to the greatest men associated with her history.
Agrippina was the first woman who acquired the privilege of entering the capitol in the vehicle assigned to the priests in religious ceremonies, and on all public occasions she took an elevated seat reserved for her near the emperor.
On the occasion of the adoption of her son to the exclusion of the emperor's own child by Messalina, the infant Britannicus, she received the cognomen of Augusta; and to the prophetic augur who bade her "beware, lest the son she had so elevated might prove her ruin," she replied, "Let me perish, but let Nero reign." In this answer we have the secret of her great actions, and the motive for all her imputed crimes. Amidst all her lofty aspirations, her indomitable pride, her keen sense of injuries inflicted, her consciousness of power acquired, there was one deep and redeeming affection; this brilliant despot, the astute politician of her age, was still, above all and in all—a mother!
The marriage of her son to Octavia, the emperor's daughter, consummated the hopes and views of Agrippina, and relieving her from maternal anxiety, allowed her to give up her mind entirely to the affairs of state; and owing to her vigorous guidance of the reins of government, the last years of the reign of Claudius were years of almost unequalled prosperity in every respect—and this indolent and imbecile emperor died while the genius and vigour of his wife were giving such illustrations to his reign.
Agrippina has been accused of poisoning her husband, but on no sufficient grounds—his own gluttony was probably the cause of his death. But that Agrippina's arts seated her sou on the throne of the Cæsars, there can be no doubt.
In all this great historical drama, who was the manager, and moat efficient actor? woman or man? Whose was the superior ​mind? who was the intellectual agent? Was it the wily Seneca? the ductile Burrhus? the sordid army? the servile senate? the excitable people? or the consistent, concentrated Agrippina; who, actuated by one all-absorbing feeling, in the pursuit of one great object, put them all in motion? that feeling was maternal love; that object the empire of the world!
Nero was but eighteen years old when he ascended the throne; and, grateful to her whose genius had placed him there, he resigned the administration of affairs into her hands, and evinced an extraordinary tenderness and submission to his august mother. The senate vied with him in demonstrations of deference to her, and raised her to the priesthood, an assignment at once of power and respect.
The conscript fathers yielded to all her wishes; the Roman people had already been accustomed to seeing her on the imperial tribunal; and Seneca, Burrhus and Pallas became but the agents of her will. In reference to the repose and prosperity of the empire under her sway, Trajan, in after years, was wont to compare the first five years of Nero's reign with those of Rome's best emperors,
Agrippina must have early discovered Nero's deficiency in that physical sensibility, and those finer sympathies which raise man above the tiger and vulture. She is reported to have said, "The reign of Nero has begun as that of Augustus ended; but when I am gone, it will end as that of Augustus began:"—the awful prophecy was soon accomplished. The profound policy by which she endeavoured to prolong her own government, and her watchfulness over the young Britannicus, are sufficient evidences that the son so loved in the perversity of maternal instinct must have eventually laid bare the inherent egotism and cruelty of his nature.
When, on the occasion of a public reception given to an embassy from the East, Agrippina moved forward to take her usual place beside Nero, he, with officious courtesy and ironical respect, sprang forward and prevented the accomplishment of her intention. After this public insult, Agrippina lost all self-control, and uttered passionate and impolitic words that were soon conveyed to the emperor, and by awakening his fears, let loose his worst passions. After murdering Britannicus to frustrate her designs, imprisoning her in her own palace, and attempting to poison her, a reconciliation took place between Nero and Agrippina, of which the mother was the only dupe, for the world understood the hollowness of her son's professions of affection, and all abandoned her.
Nero was now resolved on the death of his mother, and took great pains in arranging an artful scheme to accomplish it—which was frustrated by Aceronia, who voluntarily received the blow intended for her mistress. Agrippina escaped then, but was soon afterwards murdered by Anicetus, who, commissioned by her son, entered her chamber with a band of soldiers, and put an end to her life, after a glorious reign of ten years; during which she was distinguished for her personal and intellectual endowments, and gave peace and prosperity to the empire she governed. Her faults belonged to the bad men and bad age in which she lived—the worst on record: her virtues and her genius were her own. She inherited them from Agrippa, the friend and counsellor of Augustus, and from Agrippina, the wife of Germanicus.
​The mind of this extraordinary woman was not wholly engrossed by the arts of intrigue or the cares of government; she found time to write her own Memoirs or Commentaries on the events of her time, of which Tacitus availed himself for his historical works. Pliny also quotes from her writings.