Agrippina the Younger Biography

Agrippina the Younger or Agrippina Minor was the niece and fourth wife of Roman emperor Claudius and mother of Nero, the last Roman emperor of the Julio-Claudian dynasty. Considered one of the leading ladies of the Julio-Claudian dynasty, Agrippina was known to be ambitious, powerful, dominating, and merciless. She was the daughter of Germanicus, an eminent general of the Roman Empire who once became heir apparent of the empire under Tiberius. Agrippina the Elder, her mother, was great-granddaughter of Augustus, the first Roman Empire. Agrippina the Younger faced exile for a couple of years for conspiring against her brother, Caligula, who succeeded Tiberius as the Roman Emperor. Her first husband and Nero’s biological father, Gnaeus Domitius Ahenobarbus, died of edema. Her second husband, Gaius Sallustius Passienus Crispus, died of poisoning. Ancient historians believed that her uncle and third husband, Claudius, also died of poison, and many sources implicate Agrippina. Upon Claudius’s death, Nero, his stepson through Agrippina succeeded the throne. Initially Agrippina made efforts to play regent and dominate the empire, which eventually failed as Nero rose to power prompting power struggle between mother and son. Agrippina was later executed on Nero’s order.