A Cyclopaedia of Female Biography/Agrippina
AGRIPPINA,
The daughter of M. Vipsanius Agrippa and Julia, the only child of Augustus, married Germanicus, the son of Drusus, and nephew to Tiberius, to whom she bore nine children. Three of them died in infancy, and among the remaining six were Caligula, afterwards emperor, and Agrippina, the mother of Nero. On the death of Angustus, (A. D. 14,) Germanicus and his wife were with the army, on the banks of the Rhine, where they had much difficulty in restraining the mutinous soldiery from proclaiming Germanicus in opposition to his uncle. On this occasion Agrippina, by her resolution and courage, shewed herself worthy of her descent from Augustus; and the following year she exhibited the same qualities, in repressing a general panic that had seized on the soldiers during her husband's absence, and preventing them from disgracing themselves. Agrippina was with her husband in Syria, when he fell a victim to the arts of Piso and Plancina. Her resentment at this treatment was such as to draw upon her the anger of Tiberius; and when, after a widowhood of seven years, she requested him to give her a husband, he evaded her petition, knowing well that the husband, of Agrippina would be a dangerous enemy. At length, she so offended the emperor, by shewing him that she suspected him of an intention to poison her, that he banished her to the island of Pandataria, and at last closed her life by starvation, October 13th., A. D. 33. The rage of Tiberius was not appeased by the death of Agrippina; he had injured her too deeply to forgive himself, and so he sought to appease his hatred by persecuting her children—and her two eldest sons were his victims.
The character of Agrippina presents some of the strongest points, both of the good and bad, in Roman life. She was frank, upright, sternly courageous, and unimpeachably virtuous. She was faithful and loving to her husband, watchful and anxious for her children. Yet with all this, she was excessively proud of her noble descent; fiery and impetuous in passion, indiscreet in speech, and imprudent in conduct. This is a mixed character, but a shining one. It is one which fell short of Cornelia, but excelled all common fame. Compared with Tiberius, she was an angel in conflict with a demon.