In this respect he may be compared to Faust, the celebrated printer, who was nearly his contemporary. His principal works were the following:—"De Nobilitate et Præcellentia Fœminei Sexus," written in 1509. "De Occulta Philosophia," published in 1533, in three books; a fourth book often appended to these is not genuine. "De Triplici Ratione Cognoscendi Deum," written at Casale in 1515. "De Incertitudine et Vanitate Scientiarum et Artium, atque Excellentia Verbi Dei Declamatio," written at Lyons in 1526, while he held the thankless office of physician to the queen-mother of France, and first published in Antwerp in 1530—a satire of extreme severity upon the existing state of learning, or rather upon its scholastic professors and dictators. "Apologia pro Defensione Declamationis de Vanitate Scientiarum, contra Theologistes Lovanienses," written in Flanders in 1533. His whole works have been several times printed in two volumes. A large and curious analysis of the chief of them will be found in his Life by Morley.—[Author:Thomas Jackson|T. J.]]
AGRIPPA, Herod, king of Judea, son of Aristobulus and Berenice, and grandson of Herod the Great, was born in the year 10 b.c. In early life he resided many years in Rome, but his profuse expenditure reduced him to great difficulties, and forced him, in a.d. 23, to repair to Judea. After residing there in extreme penury till a.d. 26, he revisited Rome, and was kindly received by Tiberius. Becoming the associate of Caius, afterwards Caligula, he was thrown into prison by Tiberius, and kept in chains, for having in conversation expressed a wish that his friend might speedily mount the throne. Caligula, on his accession, set him at liberty; gave him a gold chain equal in weight to the iron one with which he had been loaded in prison; and conferred on him, with the title of king, the two vacant tetrarchies, which had belonged respectively to Philip and Lysanias. Agrippa, in his way to Judea, visited Alexandria, and entered that city with such extravagant pomp as to excite the ridicule of the Alexandrians. He was involved in perplexity and peril by Caligula's mad determination to have his image placed in the sanctuary at Jerusalem. Agrippa proceeded to Rome, and adroitly induced Caligula to defer the execution of his orders; and by the violent death of that emperor, which took place soon after, he was saved from the destruction which the tyrant's obstinacy would have occasioned. Agrippa, being at Rome at the period of Caligula's assassination, and perhaps not a stranger to the plot that led to it, is said to have greatly contributed to raise Claudius to the throne. The new emperor confirmed the grants of his predecessor to Agrippa, and, by adding Judea and Samaria, made him sovereign of the whole territory that had formed the dominions of Herod the Great. Agrippa governed his subjects with moderation and acceptance, though his introduction of Roman customs and manners offended the more strict adherents of the Jewish law. To gain popularity, he commenced a persecution of the Christians, putting James to death, and apprehending Peter with the same intention. The fortifications he commenced at Jerusalem would, in the opinion of Josephus, have rendered that city impregnable, had not their completion been prevented by his death. Neighbouring rulers, who found it expedient to cultivate his friendship, secured his favour by gratifying his characteristic vanity with the most fulsome adulation. The circumstances of his decease in the fifty-fourth year of his age, as recorded in the Acts of the Apostles, entirely agree with the narrative of Josephus, and derive corroboration from the luxurious and voluptuous habits, and the unparalleled love of admiration, that had marked the whole of Herod Agrippa's career.—E. M.
AGRIPPA, Herod, II., son of the preceding, was born and educated at Rome. The Emperor Claudius was disposed to appoint him his father's successor, but was dissuaded by his ministers from intrusting to an inexperienced youth—for he was only in his seventeenth year at his father's death—the administration of an important and disaffected kingdom. Accordingly, Judea was reduced into the form of a Roman province. Young Agrippa, on the death of his uncle Herod, prince of Chalcis, in a.d. 48, was appointed sovereign of that principality, superintendent of the temple and sacred treasury, and elector of the high priest. In 53, Claudius gave him, in exchange for Chalcis, the tetrarchies which had formerly belonged to Philip and Lysanias, and Nero added a part of Galilee, and a city with a small district in Peræa. It was before this Agrippa that the apostle Paul delivered his memorable defence. Agrippa's devotedness to Rome, and partiality to Roman manners, rendered him unpopular among the Jews. He aided Titus with great zeal and efficiency during the siege of Jerusalem, and, after the destruction of that city, retired to Rome, where he died about a.d. 94. In him the Herodian line became extinct.—E. M.
AGRIPPA, Marcus Posthumus, the posthumous son of Agrippa Vipsanius by Julia, was adopted by Augustus, banished from Rome through the artifices of Livia, and murdered by order of her and her son Tiberius after the death of Augustus.
AGRIPPA, Marcus Vipsanius, the early associate and devoted adherent, to whose sagacity, valour, and energy Augustus was mainly indebted for the success of his whole career, was born in the year 64 b.c. Both he and Octavianus, afterwards Augustus, were at Apollonia, when the unexpected intelligence of Cæsar's murder arrived. Agrippa, with characteristic promptitude, instantly urged his friend to seize the propitious moment, and, repairing at once to Rome, assume the name, and rally round him the adherents, of his uncle and adoptive father. To Octavianus and his relatives, this counsel at first seemed too adventurous; but Agrippa's spirit and decision overcame their timid hesitation. Octavianus started for Rome, accompanied, it would appear, by Agrippa, who, soon afterwards, assisted in the impeachment of the leading conspirators. There is no mention of his having taken part in the civil war that was terminated by the battle of Philippi; but, in the Persian war, he rendered Octavianus very effective service. After a successful and decisive campaign in Gaul, against native insurgents and German invaders, he was appointed by Octavianus to the direction of his naval affairs. It was necessary to equip a naval force capable of contending with Sextus Pompeius, who, at this period, had the complete superiority at sea. The measures now devised and executed by the genius and vigour of Agrippa, not merely effected this, but led directly to the succession of naval victories, which soon made Octavianus undisputed sovereign of the Roman world. Agrippa's first step was to create a safe and extensive haven, afterwards called Portus Julius, where, in all weathers, the largest fleet might not only enjoy commodious anchorage, but manœuvre with freedom. There, while the skill and dexterity of the rowers were improved by incessant exercise, a select body of troops, specially destined for naval service, were trained to combat with the same firmness and energy at sea as on shore. The immense superiority of such troops in the naval warfare of the ancients is at once manifest. The bravest veterans, if unaccustomed to the rolling of a vessel in a rough sea or a swell, might prove utterly inefficient in a naval engagement. To this improvement, accordingly, are mainly to be attributed Agrippa's naval victories. It was in close combat, historians agree, that his forces proved irresistible. A warlike machine, also devised by himself, he is said to have employed with amazing effect. After the entire defeat of S. Pompeius, Agrippa, in 35 b.c., served in the Illyrian war, as second in command under Octavianus. In 33 b.c. he consented to become ædile, and rendered himself for ever memorable by the magnificent and useful public works he executed, at his own expense, during this period. Some time after the victory at Actium, of which Agrippa had all the merit, an estrangement occurred between him and his chief. Finally, Octavianus, convinced that Agrippa was too powerful and too necessary to be treated with indifference, resolved to make him his virtual associate and presumptive heir in the empire. He gave him his daughter Julia in marriage, and subsequently adopted Caius and Lucius, the male issue of that union. In the year 14 b.c. Agrippa visited Syria, was received by Herod the Great with studied demonstrations of honour, sacrificed a hecatomb at Jerusalem, feasted the citizens with great magnificence, and afterwards interested himself in continuing the privileges accorded to the Jews settled in the province of Asia. He died in Campania in 12 b.c., on his return from a winter campaign in Pannonia. Less interested than Mæcenas in elegant literature, Agrippa had always devoted special attention to such inquiries and pursuits as are of most practical importance to the general and the statesman, and published a statistical survey of the empire, which was afterwards promulgated as an official document, by Marcus Aurelius and Alexander Severus.—E. M.
AGRIPPI´NA, the grand-daughter of Pomponius Atticus, and daughter of Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa, was married to Tiberius, afterwards emperor, who, though much attached to her, divorced her to espouse Julia, the daughter of Augustus, and widow of Agrippa. She afterwards became the wife of Asinius Gallas, whom Tiberius imprisoned for life.
