AGRIPPA, Cornelius, born at Cologne in 1486, a man of considerable learning, and by common report a great magician; for the monks at that time suspected every thing of heresy or sorcery which they did not understand. He composed his treatise of the Excellence of Women to insinuate himself into the favour of Margaret of Austria, governess of the Low Countries. He accepted of the charge of historiographer to the emperor, which that princess gave him. The treatise of the Vanity of the Sciences, which he published in 1530, enraged his enemies extremely; as did that of Occult Philosophy, which he printed soon after at Antwerp. He was imprisoned in France for something he had written against Francis I.’s mother; but was liberated, and went to Grenoble, where he died in 1534.

Agrippa, Herod, the son of Aristobulus and Mariamne, and grandson to Herod the Great, was born in the year of the world 3997, three years before the birth of our Saviour, and seven years before the vulgar era. After the death of Aristobulus his father, Josephus informs us that Herod his grandfather took care of his education, and sent him to Rome to make his court to Tiberius. The emperor conceived a great affection for Agrippa, and placed him near his son Drusus. Agrippa very soon won the graces of Drusus, and of the empress Antonia. But Drusus dying suddenly, all those who had been much about him were commanded by Tiberius to withdraw from Rome, lest the sight and presence of them should renew his affliction. Agrippa, who had indulged his inclination to liberality, was obliged to leave Rome, overwhelmed with debt, and in a very poor condition. He did not think it fit to go to Jerusalem, because he was not able to make a figure there suitable to his birth. He retired therefore to the castle of Massada, where he lived rather like a private person than a prince. Herod the tetrarch, his uncle, who had married Herodias, his sister, assisted him for some time with great generosity. He made him principal magistrate of Tiberias, and presented him with a large sum of money; but all this was not sufficient to answer the excessive expenses and profusion of Agrippa; so that Herod growing weary of assisting him, and reproaching him with his bad economy, Agrippa took a resolution to quit Judea, and return to Rome. Upon his arrival ho was received into the good graces of Tiberius, and commanded to attend Tiberius Nero, the son of Drusus. Agrippa, however, having more inclination for Caius, the son of Germanicus, and grandson of Antonia, chose rather to attach himself to him; as if he had some prophetic views of the future elevation of Caius, who at that time was beloved by all the world. The great assiduity arid agreeable behaviour of Agrippa so far engaged this prince, that he kept him continually about him.

Agrippa being one day overheard by Eutyches, a slave whom he had made free, to express his wishes for Tiberius’s death and the advancement of Caius, the slave betrayed him to the emperor; whereupon Agrippa was loaded with fetters, and committed to the custody of an officer. Tiberius soon after dying, and Caius Caligula succeeding him, the new emperor heaped many favours and much wealth upon Agrippa, changed his iron fetters into a chain of gold, set’a royal diadem upon his head, and gave him the tetrarchy which Philip the son of Herod the Great had been possessed of, that is, Batanaea and Trachonitis. To this he added that ofLysanias; and Agrippa returned very soon into Judea to take possession of his new kingdom.

Caius being soon after killed, Agrippa, who was then at Rome, contributed much by his advice to maintain Claudius in possession of the imperial dignity, to which he had been advanced by the army. But in this affair Agrippa acted a part wherein he showed more cunning and address than sincerity and honesty; for while he made a show of béing in the interest of the senate, he secretly advised Claudius to be resolute, and not to abandon his good fortune. The emperor, as an acknowledgement for his kind offices, gave him all Judea and the kingdom of Chalcis, which had been possessed by his brother Herod. Thus Agrippa became of a sudden one of the greatest princes of the East, and was possessed of as much, if not more territories than had been held by Herod the Great, his grandfather. He returned to Judea, and governed it to the great satisfaction of the Jews. But the desire of pleasing them, and a mistaken zeal for their religion, induced him to commit an unjust action, the memory of which is preserved in Scripture, Acts xii. 1, 2, &c.; for about the feast of the passover, in the year of Jesus Christ 44, St James major, the son of Zebedee and brother of St John the Evangelist, was seized by his order and put to death. He proceeded also to lay hands on St Peter, and imprisoned him, waiting till the festival was over, that he might then have him executed. But God having miraculously delivered St Peter from the place of his confinement, the designs of Agrippa were frustrated. After the passover this prince went from Jerusalem to Caesarea, and there had games performed in honour of Claudius. Here the inhabitants of Tyre and Sidon waited on'him to sue for peace. Agrippa being come early in the morning to the theatre, with a design to give them audience, seated himself on his throne, dressed in a robe of silver tissue, worked in the most admirable manner. The rising sun darted on it with its rays, and gave it such a lustre as the eyes of the spectators could not endure. When, therefore, the king spoke to the Tyrians and Sidonians, the parasites around him began to say that it was the voice of a god, and not that of a man. Instead of rejecting these impious flatteries, Agrippa received them with an air of complacency; but at the same time observed an owl above him on a cord. He had seen the same bird before, when he was in bonds by order of Tiberius; and it was then told him that he should be soon set at liberty, but that whenever he saw the same thing a second time, he should not live above five days afterwards. He was therefore ex? tremely terrified; and he died at the end of five days, racked with tormenting pains in his bowels, and devoured with worms. Such was the death of Herod Agrippa, after a reign of seven years, in the year of Christ 44.

Agrippa II. son of the preceding Herod, was made king of Chalcis; but three or four years after, he was deprived of that kingdom by Claudius, who gave him in the [7:2:358]place of it other provinces. In the war which Vespasian carried on against the Jews, Herod sent him a succour of 2000 men; by which it appears, that though a Jew by religion, he was yet entirely devoted to the Romans, whose assistance indeed he wanted to secure the peace of his own kingdom. He lived to the third year of Trajan, and died at Rome a. c. 100. He was the seventh and last king of the family of Herod the Great. It was before him and Berenice his sister that St Paul pleaded his cause at Caesarea.

Agrippa, Marcus Vipsanius, son-in-law to Augustus, of mean birth, but one of the most considerable generals among the Romans. Augustus’s victory over Pompey and Mark Antony was owing to his counsel. He adorned the city with the Pantheon, baths, aqueducts, &c.