Agrippina the Elder (14 BC-33 AD) was a member of the Roman royal family during the 1st century AD. She was the daughter of Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa and Julia the Elder, the wife of Germanicus, and the mother of Nero Julius Caesar, Drusus Caesar, Caligula, Agrippina the Younger, Julia Drusilla, and Julia Livilla. In 33 AD, she was starved to death while exiled by Emperor Tiberius.
Biography[]
Agrippina was born in 14 BC, the daughter of Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa and Julia the Elder. Her brothers Lucius and Gaius Caesar were adopted as Augustus' heirs until their premature deaths, so Augustus had her cousin Germanicus made the adoptive son of his new heir, Tiberius, and had Agrippina marry him. She travelled with him during his military campaigns, taking their children wherever he went. She liked to dress her son Gaius in a soldier's costume with small boots, leading to his nickname "Caligula" ("little soldier's boots"). After three years in Gallia, they returned to Rome, and Germanicus was awarded a triumph in 17 AD. However, in 19 AD, Germanicus was poisoned while serving as a general in Roman Syria, and Agrippina stirred up public opinion against Emperor Tiberius and Empress dowager Livia, who did not attend Germanicus' funeral, and who were likely responsible for his murder. Agrippina sided with dissidents in the Roman Senate who opposed Tiberius, Livia, and the Praetorian Guard prefect Sejanus, who was growing in power as a grey eminence. Agrippina believed that Tiberius had murdered Germanicus to promote his son Drusus Julius Caesar as the heir to the throne, and, after Germanicus' death, Agrippina supported the claims of her own sons Nero Julius Caesar and Drusus Caesar. Sejanus accused her supporters of treason and sexual misconduct after 26 AD, eliminating her supporters. In 29 AD, Agrippina and Nero were exiled, and she starved to death on the island of Pandateria in 33 AD.