AGGIE SOURCES

Question 1

Family background and status

BARRETT

Answer 1

Agrippina made “…much of her Julian descent…that came through the bloodline and was not conferred merely through adoption” BARRETT

Question 2

Family background and status

TACITUS

Answer 2

SOURCE:“Agrippina’s exceptionally illustrious birth is indisputable” Tacitus

Question 3

Suetonius on Ahenobarbus

Answer 3

SOURCE: Ahenobarbus “…was a wholly despicable character” SUETONIUS

Question 4

Levick reason for Claudius marrying Aggie

Answer 4

SOURCE: “By marrying her, Claudius could both right old wrongs and immeasurably reinforce his political position” LEVICK

Question 5

Basis of her power and influence, patronage

PATRONAGE

Answer 5

“Agrippina was training her son for the throne and entrusting his education to Seneca” (Cassius Dio)

Question 6

Role during the reign of Gaius (Caligula), including exile

SUETONIUS annual vows for emperors sagety

Answer 6

SOURCE: “I will not value my life or that of my children less highly than I do the safety of Emperor Gaius and his sisters” SUETONIUS

Question 7

Role during the reign of Gaius (Caligula), including exile

SUETONIUS INCEST

Answer 7

SOURCE: “It was his habit to commit incest with each of his three sisters SUETONIUS

Question 8

Role during the reign of Gaius (Caligula), including exile

BARRET COUNTER-INCEST

Answer 8

SOURCE: “The …favours that he heaped on them at the beginning of his reign has a political purpose, but they also suggest considerable affection within the family.” BARRETT

Question 9

Role during the reign of Gaius (Caligula), including exile

SESTERTIUS

Answer 9

Bronze Sestertius of AD 37-8 - showing Caligula on one side and his three sisters on the other

Question 10

Role during reign of Claudius

TACTIUS CRITICAL OF CLAUDIUS

Answer 10

SOURCE: “….With an emperor whose likes and dislikes were all suggested and dictated to him …” TACITUS

Question 11

ATY living away from Rome in role during reign of Claudius

Answer 11

SOURCE: “the absence of Agrippina from the recorded events…between Claudius’s accession and the eve of Messalina’s fall speaks volumes of her good sense. She should have been the main target for Messalina’s vengeance” BARRETT

Question 12

WHY O WHY DID CLAUDIUS REMARRY????

Answer 12

SOURCE: “Claudius needed to remarry because he needed a political ally to help him …” BARRETT

Question 13

ROLE DURING REIGN OF CLAUDIUS - DeSpOtIsM

Answer 13

SOURCE: “From this moment, the country was transformed. Complete obedience was accorded to a woman….almost masculine despotism” TACITUS ( Despotism - Absolute authority, often cruel, oppressive)

Question 14

ROLE DURING REIGN OF CLAUDIUS -

archaeological sources

Answer 14

Gemma Claudia

Sebasteion relief from Aphrodisias, ATY, Claudius + Senate

Question 15

Role and changing relationship with Nero during his reign

archaeological sources BEGINNNING OF REGIN

Answer 15

SOURCE: A sculptured relief of ATY + Nero from the Sebasteion at Aphrodisias
SOURCES: gold + silver coins were minted in the 1st years of Nero’s reign → first time that a living woman was shown on the face of a coin with the emperor

Question 16

ATY INTENTIONS W? NERO SCULLARD

Answer 16

SOURCE: Agrippina now meant to rule through her son” SCULLARD

Question 17

Armenian delegation

Answer 17

SOURCE: this managed to ‘avert a scandal’ TACITUS

Question 18

Acte

GRIFFIN

Answer 18

SOURCE: “Agrippina…did not lose her personal authority until 55, when Nero embarked on a passionate love affair with a freedwoman called Acte, thus openly insulting his wife Octavia and defying his mother’s approval” GRIFFIN

Question 19

Changing role in Nero reign SEUTONIOUS

Answer 19

SOURCE: “The over watchful, over-critical eye that Agrippina kept on whatever Nero said did prove more than he could stand.” SUETONIUS

Question 20

Relationships with other members of the imperial court: Seneca, Burrus and imperial freedmen

CASSIUS DIO their BetrAYAL

Answer 20

“Seneca and Burrus…although they owed their positions to her, had little love for a petticoat government” CASSIUS DIO

Question 21

impact of her personality on her role and public image

GRUEN, preface to GINSBURG

Answer 21

SOURCE:
depictions of ATY on coinage + statues = provide a “… stark contrast with the written evidence. She appears as a matron and priestess, emblematic of domestic rectitude [morally correct behaviour] and public piety, and a central figure in the continuity of the dynasty. Ginsburg incisively demonstrates the means whereby Agrippina’s imagery was moulded both to serve the interests of the Julio-Claudian regime and to advance the ends of its critics”

Question 22

impact of her personality on her role and public image

BARRETT

Answer 22

“Agrippina became the very first women during her lifetime to share with the reiging princeps the face of an official coin in Rome” BARRETT

Question 23

Assessment of her life and career

SCULLARD

Answer 23

SOURCE: “Her power was advertised on the coinage which bore confronting busts of herself and Nero on the obverse with the legend ‘Agripp(ina) Aug(usta) divi Claud(ii uxor) Neronis Caes(aris) mater; Nero’s name and titles were banished to the reverse” SCULLARD