Agrippina the Elder
14 BC – 33 · Generation IV · Julio-Claudian
Agrippina (14 BC – AD 33). Married Germanicus around AD 5. 2 of their children are recorded in this archive. Granddaughter of Augustus; died of starvation in exile under Tiberius — whether by her own choice is not known. The daughter of Agrippa and Julia, she grew up after her father’s death in Augustus’s closely guarded household. She followed Germanicus on campaign with their children, and during the Rhine mutiny of AD 14 the sight of her leaving camp with little Gaius, dressed in soldier’s boots — hence “Caligula” — reportedly helped calm the troops. When Germanicus died at Antioch in AD 19 amid rumours of poison, she carried his ashes back to Rome through crowds of mourners. Convinced he had been murdered, she pressed her sons’ claims to the succession and clashed openly with Tiberius and his prefect Sejanus, refusing to eat at the emperor’s table and asking in vain to remarry. House arrest near Herculaneum followed in AD 27, then banishment to Pandateria, where a centurion’s blows reportedly cost her an eye. Once emperor, Caligula brought her ashes home to the Mausoleum of Augustus.
Place in the family
- Agrippina the Elder was a granddaughter of Augustus Caesar.
- The archive records 3 of her descendants, across 2 generations.
One of 17 people of Julio-Claudian (85 BC–68) in this archive. Rome’s first imperial family: the Julii and the Claudii joined by marriage and adoption, Augustus to Nero.
Line of descent: Gaius Octavius of Velitrae → Augustus Caesar → Julia the Elder → Agrippina the Elder.
Parents
- Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa (63 BC – 12 BC)
- Julia the Elder (39 BC – 14)
Partners
- Married Germanicus Caesar (15 BC – 19) in 5 — 2 children together
Children
- Caligula Caesar (12 – 41)
- Agrippina the Younger (15 – 59)
Life
- 14 BC — Born
- 5 — Married Germanicus
- 33 — Died