Agrippina the Elder or Vipsania Agrippina (14 BCE – 33 CE) was the daughter of Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa and Julia, daughter of Augustus
As a child, in 5 BCE, she was married to Germanicus, and they remained together until his death in 19 CE. She bore him nine children, including Gaius (Caligula) and Agrippina the Younger.
Agrippina followed Germanicus when he was stationed on the Rhine border and later when he held command in the East. Here Germanicus died, allegedly killed by the governor of Syria. Agrippina returned to Rome with her children where she remained until 29 CE. She tried to keep alive the memory of the very popular Germanicus to better any future changes of her children succeeding Tiberius, who in return was very suspicious of her.
In 26 CE he refused her request to leave Rome to remarry and in 29 CE she was arrested and sent in exile on the island of Pandatoria. Here she died of starvation in 33 CE.
Agrippina wasn’t a very influential person in political terms, but she was very central in the Julio-Claudian dynasty. A grand-daughter of Augustus, of the gens julia, she married a grand-son of Livia, of the gens claudia, thus affirming the alliance of the two families. Her son Gaius (Caligula) followed Tiberius as emperor, to be succeeded by her brother-in-law Claudius, who married her daughter Agrippina the Younger, whose son Nero would become emperor after Claudius.
Photo gallery for "Agrippina the Elder"
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