Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1913-05-11
copyrighted. 1919.

i'll copyrighted 1917 III
Agrppina. Empress of Rome. is per-
haps best known as the mother of Nero
the woman who, thrust that detestabIe
tyrant upon the people of Rome. and
who later suffered death at the hands
of his hired assassins. Strike me
through the body that bore that monster
Nero" she said. when she recognized
the murderers as his emissaries
The woman who died thus mserably
in her forty-third year was endowed by
fortune and by nature with every pos
sible attribute which should bring sue
cess and enduring fame. She was the
daughter of Germanicus, one of the
really great Romans: was married to
Claudius, who. if not great was at least
a harmless ruler, and gave birth to
Nero. whose fiddling over burning Rome
later historians deny, but whose cruelty
and debauchery no whitewash can blot
out from history.
Nature. gave her surprising beauty,
but denied her any sense of chastity
Notorious Violator of Virtue.
Her violations of that virtue were no.
torious. and assumed forms which in
our days are heard of only in the most
debased and vicious families. Rome at
that time had stringent statute against
violations of the moral law-that is, in
the case of women-but qualified il If
such. lapses were shown to have been
due to an ambition to advance the in
terests of the state.
On this qualification Agrippina took
the fullest advantage. and 1t served TO
populace when. after a riotous career
as girl and a marriage of which Nero
was the fruit. she married her uncle,
the Emperor Claudius.
For the rest Agrippina was majestic
in carriage. of most distinguished mani
ners. with lively and enterprising in
tellect capable of undertaking great
things. But as her beauty was bartered
to the ends of lust and ambition. so
her really regal mind was marred by
the passions of avarice. jealousy and
revenge. She was capable of acts of
the most hideous cruelty. and whoever
blocked the path to realiZat ton of her
ambition suffered and disappeared.
Welded to Her Uncle.
OF Agrippina's first marriage it is un-
necessary to speak. 1t was soon ter
minated and its one contribution to his
tory was the child Nero Later. when
Messalina. wife to Claudius, and an even
worse woman than Agrippina, died, she
set herself to win the widowed emperor.
For her il was no question of affection.
ClaudiuS was her uncle, older by far than
she and attractive neither in person nor
in intellect. But he was emperor and
Agrippina had son whom she destined
for the imperial purple. That Claudius
should acquiesce was understandable.
AS daughter of Germanicus. Agrippina
had large following among the people
0f nd larIrr xx-if fIta all
powerful Praetorian guard, for her father
had been, above all things. a soldier.
Claudius had two children-a son, Br-
tannicus. and daughter. Octavia. The
daughter was easily disposed of by being
betrothed to Nero. then aged twelve and
undergoing his education at the hands of
the famous philosopher. Seneca Claudius
further was persuaded TO adopt Agrip-
pinas young hopeful. After that maNers
went smoothly and the ask of thrusting
Britannicus into the background seemed
Tor a time easy. But ii CHANGED that
claudius belatedy saw through Agrip-
ispiHa design to have her son, rather than
his succeed to his imperial dignities, and.
in his puerle fashion. lie protested.
Relieved of Husband by Poison.
| According to the pleasant marital Gus
toms of the day there was nothing for
| Agrippina TO do but to get rid Of so in
convenient a husband. The necessity was
| annoying. OF course. and the event was
made the more embarrassing by the fact
| that the dish of mushrooms-his favorite
viand-which she had prepared for him
| proeed to be little too delicately pois-
| oned. 1t incommoded him sorely but
! gave no promise of fatal results
skillful physician. who was called in to
| relieve his distress, thrust a feather down
the patients throat to induce vomiting
| AS the feather had first been dipped in
| poison. apparently something like prussic
| acid. 1t relieved all his pains forever
| Agrippina then moved with shrewd-
| ness and determination. The death Of
| Claudius was concealed until the Prae-
| torian guard could be sounded as to
their willingness to receive Nero as
emperor. This was made easy by the
fact that Britannicus-the only other
possibility-was only about twelve
mander Of the Roman armies would
have been obviously absurd So all
went smoothly and Agrippina soon saw
all her plottings and poisonings re-
then but sixteen years old. on the i'm
porial throne of Rome.
Son Her Own Undoing.
Very soon she discovered that like
the tabled Frankenstein she had Gre
ated a monster for her own undoing.
Though he had fulfilled the conditions
OF HIS betrothal and married his step
sister. Octavia. Nero speedily tired of
her and became infatuated with Acte.
freed woman of oriental beauty.
Thereupon his mother began TO harass
him.
With her multitudinous faults she
had certain high mindedness and a
lofty ambition for her son. She want
ed him to be a real emperor, a Caesar
or a Britannicus. not a mere libertine
rioting over the wine cup. Her in.
sistence annoyed Nero.
The simplest way. he thought, to rid
himself of this annoyance was to as
sa ssi,ate tho mother who bore him and
who had committed almost every sin
on the calendar 10 make him emperor
But how: Agrippina was regarded al