Violent Fems of the Ancient World

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Part 3. Destined to be Empress, Vipsania Agrippina Major (Agrippina the Elder) was the daughter of Augustus’ only child Julia and his trusted General Agrippa. When her father died her mother was forced to remarry Tiberius, her stepbrother, a man she loathed and openly rebelled against until she was exiled to the island of Pandateria, never to return. 

Agrippina grew up close to her imperial grandfather and was described as quick-tempered, strong-willed and fiercely loyal. With her brothers, Augustus’ heirs, dying young, her grandfather was forced to adopt his step-son Tiberius, an able military commander but a reluctant politi
cian and an unlikeable character. He did so on the proviso that Tiberius adopt his own nephew, a well-liked young man called Germanicus who Augustus arranged to marry his own beloved granddaughter. 

It is not known whether it was a love match from the beginning but the pair formed a formidable partnership and were the ‘Wills and Kate’ of the ancient world. The pair quickly began producing and were the poster family held up as the model for Augustus marriage and family reforms. Where Germanicus was cultured, good-natured and a skilled orator, his wife was the driving force behind his success. She even accompanied him on military campaigns, giving birth to a number of his children along the campaign trail, including her son Gaius (Caligula) and daughter Agrippina the Younger.

At one point she likely saved the life of her husband and thousands of legionaries when the Roman troops prepared to burn the bridge at Vetera with her husband on the other side. Rumour has it she rose from her childbirth bed to physically stand on the bridge to prevent them. She was also by his side in Syria where, poisoned or cursed, she watched her husband die and swore to ensure her sons inherited.

Sadly this set her against her Step-father/Father-in-law Tiberius and his ambitious Praetorian Prefect, Sejanus who were equally determined to see her fail. They attacked her family and friends, refused to allow her to remarry, accused her of treason and ultimately exiled both herself and her eldest sons. Sources tell us that before she died she had her teeth broken to force-feed her, had been so viciously flogged that she lost an eye. While both her elder sons perished her youngest, Gaius did become Emperor after her death and his first act as emperor was to sail to Pandateria to collect her bones and see her cremated and buried beside her Grandfather in Augustus great Mausoleum. Her daughter and namesake Agrippina the Younger went on to become Rome’s first ‘Empress’.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rknFqn3c4SA



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