Murder on the Baiae

[caldrail]

The story goes that an astrologer once told Agrippina the Younger that her son Nero would become emperor, but that he would kill her. She replied angrily "Let him kill me - but let him rule!"

 

Coins of Nero's reign are revealing. They show him and his mother together, as equals. A stone frieze from Aphrodisius in modern Turkey shows Agrippina attentive to young Nero as he goes about his public duty. Without Agrippina, Nero would never have ruled. She had become the fourth and final wife of Emperor Claudius for that very purpose and with the support of influential courtiers won herself the title of Augusta. Through Nero, Agrippina would rule.

 

The youthful Nero began to assume independence. Much to his mothers disgust, he had an infatuous relationship with a greek woman named Acte. With his friends he had roamed the streets beating people up, and if they resisted, stabbing them before hiding their bodies. For all intents and purposes, Nero was having a teenage rebellion. Nonetheless, he had become Emperor of Rome. For such a male dominated society, it was intolerable that his mother would dominate him.

 

The turning point came when her lover Pallas fell from grace. From AD55 the advisors of Nero, Seneca and Burrus, turned against her to ensure her influence over the young emperor was kept to a minimum. Agrippina almost vanishes from the historical record at this point. Nero for his part was becoming tired of her constant attention. Suetonius relates his efforts to force his mother away -

The over-watchful, over-critical eye that Agrippina kept on everything that Nero said or did proved more than he could stand. He first tried to embarass her with frequent threats to abdicate or go into retirement in Rhodes. Then, having deprived her of all honours and power, and even of her Roman and German bodyguard, he refused to have her living with him and expelled her from his palace; after which he did everything possible to annoy her, sending people to annoy her with lawsuits while she stayed at Rome, and when she took refuge on her riverside estate, making them constantly drive or sail past, disturbing her with jeers and cat-calls. In the end her threats and violent behaviour terrified him into deciding that she must die.

 

According to Tacitus, his girlfriend Poppea Sabina was nagging Nero mercilessly to get him to rid himself of his mother, for while she lived he would never divorce Octavia. Poppea threatened to become Otho's wife again, and told Nero that "You are not even master of yourself!". She tried everything to get Nero to act and eventually he chose to do so. Whilst everyone wanted Agrippina's domination to end, no-one seriously believed he would turn to murder.

 

An obscure roman author, Clovius Rufus, claimed that -

Agrippina's passion to retain power carried her so far that at midday, the time when food and drink were beginning to raise Nero's temperature, she several times appeared before her inebriated son all decked out and ready for incest.

 

Another observer, Fabius Rusticus, believed that it was Nero's desire rather than hers. Seneca brought in the freedwoman Acte to distract him from his mother.

 

At any rate, Nero was beginning to distance himself from her. He praised her for taking holidays away from Rome. But how to kill her? A stabbing was too risky, an assassin too unreliable. Could it be made to look like an accident? His first move was to try to poison her, something he attempted three times without success. Tacitus describes her as taking a course of antidotes, while other stories relate that she had taken poison in small amounts to build resistance against it. Nero then arranged for a way to dislodge roof panels in her bedroom, in order to fall on her while she slept. Agrippina was tipped off by someone involved in the plot.

 

Agrippina shortly after received a note from her son offering reconciliation and an invite to Baiae to celebrate the Feast of Minerva. On arrival, the galley she had sailed in was involved in a collision. This was deliberate, the offending captain working on Nero's orders. When the evening drew to a close Agrippina was keen to leave, and Nero offered her a boat in place of her own damaged vessel. She accepted, and Nero led her down to the quay, where he said goodbye with some intimacy.

 

The answer to Nero's dilemma was suggested by Anicetus, an ex-slave who commanded the fleet at Misenum. At his suggestion the boat was rigged to sink. Not only that, lead weights were held in the cabin roof to drop on the ususpecting woman. Agrippina relaxed on a couch whilst her companion Acerronia discussed her mistresses new-found influence with Nero. Another companion, Crepereius Gallus stood by the tiller. He was crushed when the trap was sprung. The two women were saved by the stout seat that took the pressure of the lead weights. Worst still, the sailors could not scuttle the boat as planned.

 

Chaos broke out on board. The sailors in on the plot attempted to capsize the boat, and the remaining men tried to stop them. Acerronia shouted for help and pretended to be Agrippina. Whether she did that to save her mistress or perhaps as a means of survival is unclear, but it did her no good. She was clubbed to death in the darkness with oars, poles, or any other sailing gear to hand. Agrippina took advantage of the confusion and slipped overboard.

 

Nero was anxious to learn of his mothers fate. His mothers freedman arrived at Nero's residence at Baiae with news of a shipwreck. To Nero's horror, Agerinus told him that she was alive and well, having swum ashore. There was no need to trouble her.

 

Nero panicked. He quietly ordered a blade to be dropped beside Agerinus, accused him of being an assassin, then had him slain whilst claiming that Agerinus had committed suicide on discovery. Would his mother soon arrange violence? After a long and stressful wait Seneca suggested sending soldiers. Nero finally calmed down enough to order Anicetus to finish what he'd started. With soldiers in tow Anicetus went to Agrippina's residence and surrounded it. Household slaves were arrested on sight.

 

Agrippina had heard the uproar. Agerinus had not returned and she suspected that this might be her sons assassins. Anicetus led his men into her bed chamber and she shouted after her maid who promptly vanished out the door. She then told them to tell her son she was safe. A naval captain named Herculeius hit her with a truncheon As Obaritus, an officer, was drawing his sword Agrippina pointed at her womb and demanded "Strike here!". She was killed by numerous blows. By all accounts Nero spent a night suffering pangs of guilt, but it wasn't to last. Freed from his mothers influence there was no longer any restraint on his behaviour. Once he had been ruled by his mother - now he was ruled by his ego.

 

The relationship between Nero and Agrippina the Younger remains controversial. She was without doubt a very manipulative woman who allowed her son to become over-familiar. Agrippina's familiarity was always going to be the problem. She used her charms without hesitation - rumours of incest with Caligula, affairs with Lepidus and Pallas, and then a somewhat dubious marriage to Claudius. Nor was she above murder herself, as the death of Claudius was at her instigation.

 

Where Agrippina failed in her desire to control Nero's behaviour was the influence of his advisors. They did nothing to restrain him. Nero was not a spoilt child in the sense that we would recognise, and indeed he seems to have been aware at an early age that his survival depended on his mothers protection. In her defence, she generally remains a figure of influence behind the scenes. As his mother she knew Nero intimately and was well aware of his character faults, nonetheless she persisted in attempting to curb them in order to retain some measure of public respectability. It may well be she had the best motives for this given his later actions, but her methods were courting public controversy and just about everyone was egging Nero on to be rid of her, to cut the apron-strings. In AD59, he did so with murderous finality.

[Primus Pilus]

The power struggle between Agrippina, Seneca and Burrus is interesting and laced with irony. Without Agrippina, these men (and Nero as well of course), likely never would've held the station they did. Seneca was in practical exile until her intervention. Burrus' appointment as Praetorian Prefect was essentially pushed onto Claudius by his wife. While there seems to be little evidence to suggest that Claudius opposed Burrus, her involvement and influence regarding the advancement is clear. Seneca's distaste for Claudius is well recorded though (see Apocolocyntosis Divi Claudii) and without Agrippina he was destined to a life excluded from politics.

 

Of course, it wasn't long before Seneca and Burrus began to oppose the influence of Agrippina as they secured their own authority. However, once she was removed and Nero fell under the influence of Poppeia (and his own devices), these two once powerful men were removed from their own positions of importance.

 

Essentially, Agrippina brought them in... and she took them with her.

[caldrail]

Its an interesting shift of power during that period, and inevitably, given roman ambition, one that must end in tragedy.

 

There is a point about the story given. Tacitus provides with the most detailed version - at least as far as I'm aware - but there's something odd. That final scene in Agrippina's bed chamber seems to lack some detail. Anicetus comes in with at least two heavies. The maid rushes out the door sensing danger and Agrippina shouts "So you're going too?". Thats pretty much what I would expect. But notice what follows. Herculeius whacks her with a truncheon. No order was given by Anicetus, who either gave the nod or took no further part in arranging her death. That seems a little odd to me. Agrippina must have twigged she was in danger, and given her robust character, I would have thought she'd give them a piece of her mind - which would be why Herculeius struck her like that. It was a violent 'shut up'. Obaritus pulls his sword but does so deliberately. All three men are unwilling to carry this out, it runs counter to their sensibilities. However, Nero has ordered them, and so they must act.

[Gaius Paulinus Maximus]

Yet again an excellent article on the Principate Caldrail.

 

Agrippina the younger must have been some woman, not only did she avoid being poisoned not once but three times by taking antidotes which she must surely have had on hand knowing of the threat to her life, or the other story of her taking small doses of poison in order to build a Resistance against it again is pretty impressive, but she also avoided being clubbed to death on a boat that had been purposely rigged to sink and then escaped by slipping over the side and I'm guessing swimming to safety in total darkness.......Wow what a woman.

 

How old was Agrippina when she was performing these super human feats and can we truly believe that these events happened in the way that they've come down to us, I believe that the historian A Dawson in his book "whatever Happened To Lady Agrippina" has exposed the impossibilities in Tacitus' narrative on these particular events.

 

What do you think?

[caldrail]

She was born on November 6th AD15, so she was 44 years old when this escapade occurred. As I've pointed out, there some possible holes in Tacitus's story. He gives far more detail than Suetonius which is good, but some of the behaviour seems a little odd if you take the narrative at face value. However, something close to this occurred so perhaps a little editing took place? Perhaps not by Tacitus, who may well have told the tale as he heard it, but certainly from the men involved who lets face it, weren't about to brag.

 

I do agree, Agrippina Junior was a formidable lady indeed. She was willing to do pretty much anything to achieve her goals but there was never a sense of desperation about it until that story of being suggestive toward her son in public. In many ways I do believe Fabius Rusticus hit the nail on the head. Nero had some fantasies about his mother and she knew about it. There is this tale that Nero slept with a woman who resembled his mother closely, and given the number of loose women he associated with, its not impossible that Agrippina had interviewed some of them to find out exactly what her son got up to. "So thats what he wants, is it?". If thats true, then she exploited it shamelessly. And uselessly.