tacitus has given us a spirited picture of life in the imperial palace during the months which followed the execution of messalina. claudius himself had sunk into a state of drowsy indifference when the storm excited by his discovery had spent itself. “where is the empress?” he asked, as he sat at supper the night after her death, and noticed the empty place on the couch. narcissus told him that she was dead, and he asked no more. but the palace about his slumbering figure soon began to hum with conflicting intrigues for the succession to her chamber. ladies who had visited the palatine with nervous prudence while messalina lived now came to display their charms, and express their tenderness, to the doting emperor. from the sombre night of the tragedy rome passed with relief to the light enjoyment of the new comedy. the freedmen, who surrounded and controlled claudius, selected their candidates.
claudius had inserted one sentiment of his own in the speech which narcissus had induced him to make to the pr?torian guards. he had sworn that he would not marry again. there were ladies in his household, such as calpurnia and cleopatra, who would encourage the resolution; but the freedmen decided that he was bound to capitulate under so fair a siege, and it would be better to have some share in the making of the new empress. each of the greeks chose a different lady. narcissus, who had been promoted to high public service for his zeal,80 favoured the suit of ?lia p?tina, whom claudius had lightly divorced twenty-one years before. callistus took up the cause of lollia paulina, the wealthy and beautiful woman whom caligula had torn from her husband and used so unjustly. the steward, pallas, was more fortunate in his choice. he advocated marriage with agrippina; and, as the mind of agrippina coincided more decisively with that of her champion than seems to have happened in the case of her rivals, his campaign succeeded. she discovered a most tender and considerate affection for her uncle, visited him assiduously, and persuaded him to betroth his daughter octavia to her son lucius domitius (later nero).
octavia was already betrothed, and agrippina is said to have removed the first obstacle to her designs by a cruel and unscrupulous act. we are told that she induced, and it is at least clear that she permitted, the sycophantic courtier vitellius, who favoured her suit, to accuse the young man, to whom octavia was betrothed, of incest with his daughter-in-law. tacitus has so mean an estimate of the young people and their generation that he does not regard the charge as a serious libel. he insists, however, that agrippina had the case against them forged, and thus opened her dark imperial career with a crime.
we are now approaching the generation in which the great historian lived, and we are considering the very woman whose memoirs furnished him with his more serious charges against her rivals and predecessors. it may therefore seem strange that, if we are to follow our authorities with docility, we must ascribe a very vicious and unscrupulous character to agrippina herself. we have rejected the rumour that she poisoned her second husband, but that is by no means the only charge that is brought against her before she married claudius. the authorities uniformly assert that she had had incestuous relations with caligula in her early teens, had been notorious for her amours during the life of messalina, and now very flagrantly placed such honour as she had at the disposal of claudius.81 these charges we cannot control. we shall find even more serious accusations against her later, and shall have to regard them with reserve or frank incredulity. it was the literary fashion to make a consort of the c?sars imperial in her vices. on the whole, however, we are compelled to think that the eldest daughter of agrippina and germanicus had the taint of her stock. she inherited the virile ambition of her mother, and she had even less scruple in pursuing it. the best that can be said for her is that she aimed rather at making the future of her son than her own. and when that son proves to be the emperor nero, the murderer of his mother, we are disposed to read her record with the lenient eye of pity.
when the elder agrippina had been banished by tiberius, as we saw, in the year 12 a.d., her children were brought up in the house of their grandmother antonia. in this plain home of old roman virtue caligula is said to have infected and corrupted all his sisters. agrippina left it, in her thirteenth year, to marry cn. domitius ahenobarbus. as the authorities are sharply divided in regard to his character, we cannot trace his influence in the development of her character. he died in the year 40, leaving her with a three-year-old boy, lucius domitius. agrippina was still a young and beautiful woman, and is said to have availed herself of the loose morals of roman society until, as we saw, the attitude of messalina forced her to marry. she was soon a widow for the second time, with considerable wealth. her ambition revived at the death of messalina, and she paid the most winning and flagrant attentions to claudius. we should go beyond the letter of the chronicles if we suggested that she bribed vitellius and pallas to promote her suit. it is enough to say that they overcame the reluctance of claudius, and they profited materially by her accession to the throne.
claudius professed that he had a scruple about marrying his niece, and proposed to adopt her as his daughter. that empty honour was hardly recompense enough for82 the daily contemplation of his senility and sensuality. vitellius induced him to submit his delicate feeling to the senate and the people, and then artfully represented to the senators that, if claudius married agrippina, she might rid them of the hated influence of the freedmen. tacitus, whose disdain for the obsequious senate of the early empire always aggravates his comments on their conduct, describes how they raced each other to the palace to inform claudius of their decision, and how the people not improbably incited by vitellius, assembled below the palatine hill and clamoured for the marriage. the obtuse and weak-willed claudius assented, and a few days later, in the year 49, agrippina became the sixth empress of rome. little did she dream that she was entering upon the last decade of her eventful life, and that it would close with the most ghastly horror.
she was in her thirty-third year, claudius in his fifty-eighth. years of sensual indulgence had not improved his character or his intelligence, and no one in rome can have expected him to live more than the few years which remained for him. agrippina was looking to the time when she would be sole mistress of the empire. the fine statue of her which is exhibited in the lateran museum has a moral physiognomy so concordant with the authentic record of her career that we picture her to ourselves with confidence. in face and figure she is all that the word imperial suggests to the imagination. haughty, strong, and reposeful in her self-reliance, she has lost the last shade of apprehension with the passing of messalina, and has the majestic air of a mistress of the world. her low brow and large, finely-carved oval face are said by some physiognomists to have every mark of purity and refinement, but the close observer will discover in her features only such a refinement of passion as her ambition would lead us to expect. in a word, it is the face of a woman who will not stoop to vice or crime to gratify a sensual impulse, but may have recourse to either when her ambition lends it a certain expediency.
agrippina the younger
bust, mus. naz., naples
83 the career of agrippina shows that she really was a moral opportunist of this character. we need not pass any censure on her ambition. unhappy would be the state in which men and women were not at times fired by the impulse to exert their powers more energetically than their fellows. but it is impossible to ignore the persistent and harmonious statements of the latin historians in regard to the way in which agrippina pursued her ambition. we may overlook the amorous adventures of her earlier years; we may reject, as a light and implausible rumour, eagerly caught up by prurient diarists, the charge that she made any dishonourable advances to claudius before her marriage, or to the steward pallas or her son nero at later dates; and we may hesitate to admit that she was concerned in the murder of claudius. but we cannot find any other motive than a not too nice ambition in her marrying the aged and repulsive emperor, and we have strong reason to suspect her of conduct that is little short of criminal in many of the events that follow.
the most formidable of her rivals for the throne had been lollia paulina. beautiful, wealthy, and popular, the former wife of caligula seemed to threaten agrippina’s security. in their eagerness to avoid the rock of hereditary power the romans had steered their vessel into the charybdis of intrigue, and any prominent man or woman was regarded with concern by the one who wore the purple, or aspired to wear it. agrippina had a strong and legitimate hope, but no guarantee, that her son would succeed. messalina’s son, young britannicus, was ailing and epileptic, and was generally ignored in the speculations as to the succession. it was, therefore, quite natural that roman gossip should accuse agrippina of destroying paulina, and tacitus is not less generous in recording the charges against her than in admitting her slanders against livia. he affirms positively that it was the empress who persuaded claudius to have paulina prosecuted on the charge of consulting oracles and astrologers as to the duration of his marriage, and that, when her property was84 confiscated and she was sent into exile, agrippina sent a soldier to compel her to commit suicide. dio, as usual, improves upon the narrative. he describes agrippina gloating over the bleeding head of her rival, as fulvia had rejoiced over the head of cicero, and opening the mouth to see certain peculiarities of the teeth by which it might be identified.
the fatal defect of dio’s more vivid account is that, as we know from pliny, the double canine teeth, of which he speaks, belonged to agrippina herself, not to paulina, and were regarded as a sure presage of good fortune. the substance of the story, however, we cannot lightly reject. a beautiful and happy woman was driven to death for no graver cause than, at the most, an idle patronage of the oriental charlatans who then abounded in rome; and, since this consultation of oracles was common, there must have been a special reason for the selection of paulina. the motive suggested by tacitus is only too probable. he adds that agrippina also banished a lady named calpurnia. if we may identify this lady with the calpurnia whose services to claudius were so amiable as to embolden her to disclose to him the crimes of his beloved messalina, she would hardly remain long in the palace of agrippina.
apart from such episodes as these, in which jealousy or avarice led her to make an unworthy use of her power, she ruled judiciously and serviceably. claudius was in his sixtieth year. his poor mind was in complete decay, and it was both fitting and useful that agrippina should rule in his name. the coinage of the time bears witness of her activity. there is, in fact, a living memorial of her rule in the city of cologne, which, under the title of colonia agrippina, she established as an outpost of civilization on the farthest confines of the empire. she gave dignity and etiquette to the easy-going court of claudius, had the right to enter the precincts of the capitol and to ride in the gilded imperial chariot of ceremony, and, when the famous british prince caractacus was brought to rome, her throne was raised by the side of that of the emperor. the older85 roman idea of woman’s sphere was now discredited by the philosophers and contemptuously ignored by the women themselves, but the citizens moved slowly, and there was much discontent and consulting of astrologers. they were expelled from the city, but in the guarded chambers of patrician families they continued, in imposing chald?an dress, to scan horoscopes and wave preternatural wands over their symbolical tripods—much as they do in bond street to-day. the more enlightened reader, who is disposed to regard the superstition with leniency, must reflect that the prophets might at times, for the vindication of their art, be tempted to lend a little human aid when nature tarried in bringing about the deaths which the planets had so plainly foretold.
within the palace the whole care of agrippina was centred in the education of her son for the purple. to the delight of rome, she recalled the philosopher seneca from exile, and gave him charge of her son’s studies. when the real character of nero was revealed in later years, it was said that seneca had always disliked his task, and had even predicted that the boy would become a savage monster. seneca himself merely says that the boy was spoiled, and his training thwarted, by his mother. nero would fly to agrippina when seneca had made some attempt to check his wayward impulses, and the whole lesson would be lost in her injudicious caresses. apart from this not unnatural weakness, agrippina made the most commendable efforts to prepare her son for the throne. the corrupt tutor whom messalina had brought to the palace was dismissed—dio says that he was executed for attempting the life of lucius domitius—to make way for the most distinguished moralist of the time, and the military instruction was entrusted to burrus, whose integrity we shall learn presently. pallas was rewarded with such honours as no freedmen had ever borne before, and vitellius was rescued from some obscure charge of conspiracy and restored to his rank.
agrippina was now in a position of very great wealth86 and power. she drove about rome in a superb chariot, flaunted the stored jewels of the imperial house, and received presents from the ends of the earth. a white nightingale, which had cost 6,000 sesterces, and a talking thrush were amongst the rare presents sent to conciliate her. the lingering of claudius must have been irksome to her, but it was necessary to secure the succession of her son before the emperor died. the one apparent obstacle was the boy britannicus, who, as the son of claudius and messalina, had a juster title to be chosen. he was, however, subject to epileptic fits, delicate in health, and peevish in temper. agrippina had little difficulty in thrusting him aside in favour of her own handsome and engaging boy. the toga virilis, or garment of the man, was usually donned by the roman youth in his seventeenth year, but the age was anticipated in the case of princes, and domitius was to receive it at the end of the year 50. during the year, however, the convulsions of nature so plainly portended some momentous event, probably the passage of claudius to join his divine forerunners, that agrippina pressed for the immediate performance of the rite. three suns were seen in the sky, an earthquake shook the solid earth, and birds of evil omen rested on the temple. claudius assented, and manhood and other high distinctions were prematurely conferred on the future emperor, whose name was changed to nero. he joined the priestly college, received the authority of a proconsul, marched at the head of the guards, and drew the attention of all at the games by the insignia of his manly dignities, while britannicus sat in the pr?texta and bulla of the boy. it was nero who pleaded in the senate for distressed cities, nero who was made pr?tor when claudius was absent from rome. in the year 52 he was married to octavia, and all rome regarded him as the virtual heir to the throne.
there can be no serious doubt that agrippina had no affection for claudius, and must have waited impatiently for his removal when the succession was secured for her87 son. certainly rome held that view, and interpreted the events of the succeeding years in accordance with it. we must therefore be prepared to find much libellous conjecture in the chronicles about this time. serviez, who can never resist the fascination of scandal, gives us a lively picture of agrippina stooping to any expedient course of vice or crime in the furtherance of her ambition. we may have to tell a less romantic story, but it will be romantic enough.
it is clear that the empress now entered into a conflict with narcissus, the freedman who had ruined messalina, and had then favoured the suit of ?lia p?tina in opposition to her own. her critics suggest that she wished to remove this faithful servant in order to attempt the life of the emperor more easily, but the suggestion is superfluous. narcissus had found the rival freedman pallas raised to such high honours, and felt that his own service in exposing messalina had been so soon forgotten, that he clearly intrigued against agrippina. tacitus says that it was he who spread the rumour, which reached the ears of claudius, that agrippina was too intimate with pallas. we are quite unable to examine the truth or untruth of this charge, and may dismiss it. agrippina took an early occasion to attack and discredit the greek. in the centre of the italian hills was a sheet of water, the fucine lake, which had no regular outlet, and often caused disastrous floods. claudius ordered that a channel should be made to conduct its superfluous water to the river, and celebrated the opening of it, in the year 52, with a naval battle on the lake. three thrones were erected: one for the nodding, heavy-paunched emperor, who had somehow been squeezed into glittering armour, one for agrippina, in her robes of gold cloth, and one for nero.
the play did not run smoothly, and agrippina did not spare narcissus, who controlled it. the great ships drew up before the emperor, and the men who were about to risk or lose their lives to entertain him rang out the usual salutation. forgetting that if he returned the salute88 he absolved them from their dangerous duty, claudius hailed them, and they claimed the right to abstain. the emperor is described by suetonius as running alongside the lake, angrily urging them to fight. the battle proceeded, but at the close it was found that the water could not be released, and narcissus was bitterly assailed. the performance was repeated later, when the works were pronounced complete, but a number of people were drowned, and the quarrel was renewed with spirit. agrippina suggested that the funds for the undertaking had been diverted; narcissus foiled the attack with a charge of ambition against the empress.
the emperor was visibly failing, and there was great excitement at rome when, at the beginning of the year 54, nature announced once more that some stirring chapter was to run from the reel of the fates. the standards and tents of the soldiers were enveloped in mysterious flames; a rain of blood, in which a modern naturalist would doubtless discover an innocent microbe, spread terror over one part of the empire, and the birth of a pig with claws like those of a hawk caused equal consternation in another; while rome heard, with reiterated shocks, that the doors of the temple of jupiter had been opened by unseen hands, and a horrible comet, followed by the customary pestilence, had appeared in its skies. more significant still to prudent people, perhaps, was the report that claudius, returning to dine at the palace after presiding at the trial of an adultress, gloomily observed that he had been unfortunate in his marriages; he had punished one unfaithful wife, and would know how to deal with another.
in this observation of claudius we need see no more than an echo of the whispers of narcissus, but one can imagine how rome must have throbbed with expectation and abounded in gossip at the beginning of the year 54. nor was this faith in natural oracles disappointed. two tragedies were added to the sombre chronicle of the city in that year, and in both of them our empress is accused of having acted criminally.
89 the first was the condemnation to death of one of the greatest ladies of rome, domitia lepida, sister-in-law of the empress; and in this case there is every reason to suspect a guilty action on the part of agrippina. when agrippina had been exiled by caligula, her boy had lived for a few years with his father’s sister, domitia lepida, the mother of messalina. lepida was far more indulgent even than agrippina to the pretty and wayward child, and, when the mother returned to rome and he was restored to her, there was an acrimonious struggle between the two women for his affection. as it became clear that he would inherit the purple, the struggle became more passionate. narcissus saw in it an opportunity to escape the ruin which would befall him if agrippina obtained full power, and, on the ground of his charge of inconstancy against the empress, he urged claudius to make lepida guardian of nero. it is very probable that this intrigue of narcissus is the only source of the charge of license brought against the empress in her mature years.
angry and anxious, in view of the expected death of claudius, she took a bold step, and impeached lepida of criminal conduct. how far lepida was guilty we cannot say, but as she was charged only with assailing the emperor’s marriage with imprecations, and exercising so little control over her calabrian slaves as to endanger the public peace, the prudent reader will acquit agrippina of anything more than an exaggeration of the facts. that exaggeration sufficed, however, to ruin her distinguished rival. nero, schooled by his mother, gave witness that his aunt had tried to alienate his affection; her very natural comments on the emperor’s marriage were made to assume the dark form of magical imprecations; she was condemned to death.
but those lively convulsions of nature had portended something more momentous than the death of a noble matron, and rome continued to wait for the great tragedy. before long it was announced that narcissus had retired90 to sinuessa for the treatment of his gout.9 the emperor was now entirely surrounded by adherents of agrippina, and we can quite understand the conviction of rome when claudius was taken seriously ill at a banquet, and died within twenty-four hours. tacitus emphatically attributes his death to his wife. suetonius alone says that, while it was certain that claudius was poisoned, it was not certain who was guilty; a feeble reserve, since agrippina was so predominantly interested in his death.
it is not surprising that recent historians have generally followed tacitus. roergas de serviez, who rarely has such ample authority for the crimes he loves to attribute, fastens the murder on agrippina without the least hesitation. merivale sees no ground to question it, though he points out several inconsistencies in the pages of tacitus. mr. henderson follows the traditional story in his recent and discriminating study of the reign of nero.10 but mr. baring-gould insists that the death of claudius was quite natural, and any candid student of the evidence must admit that it is inconclusive.
the facts are that on october 12th, a.d. 54, claudius attended a banquet of the priestly college with agrippina. after eating some mushrooms (or figs, according to others) from a dish that was served, he became violently ill and vomited. he was taken back to the palace, attended by his (and agrippina’s) physician, but gradually sank, and died on the morning of the 13th. the theory of the opponents of agrippina is that she employed a notorious poisoner, locusta—a gaulish woman, who was certainly in rome at the time, and was afterwards employed by nero—to concoct a slow poison (“a drug that would disturb his mind and inflict a slow death,” says tacitus). this is supposed to have been inserted in a fine mushroom (or fig), which was taken by claudius when agrippina91 had eaten one from the dish to encourage him. he fell back and began to vomit, and the theory runs that agrippina, fearing that he might recover and suspect her, called in the physician xenophon, a dependent of hers, who tickled the emperor’s throat with a poisoned feather and made an end of him.
mr. baring-gould points out that, since tacitus expressly describes the poison as “slow,” agrippina could hardly be surprised and alarmed when it did not take immediate effect. he concludes that claudius contracted a violent indigestion from eating too many figs. this is no more convincing than the opposite theory. an attack of vomiting, whether from a natural cause or as an unintended effect of poison, might easily alarm claudius, who was very suspicious, and so induce agrippina to act. an attack of indigestion, on the other hand, would hardly have so violent and immediate an effect. the circumstance of tickling his throat with a feather to cause a vomit, and at the same time introducing poison, is puzzling; but it was an age of skill in poisoning, and the feat may have been possible. the question must remain open. the discrepancies in the narrative are not fatal to it, but the story itself is no more than a retailing of roman gossip, which was at all times more prurient than scrupulous. the problem really turns on the character of agrippina, and this is ambiguous enough to make us hesitate. one may scan the record of her career with the most penetrating charity without discovering any plain indication of high character, while the ruin of lollia paulina, domitia lepida, and others, may be confidently traced to her. we can only conclude that she was quite capable of accelerating the death of her husband, and would have no light interest in doing so; but the circumstances of his death are quite consistent with the kindlier view that it was due to his own intemperance. we have not yet, however, reached the close of her career, and it may be felt that her conduct after the death of claudius confirms the darker estimate of her character.
92 the malcontents of rome would be sure to agitate in favour of britannicus unless the succession was secured for nero before the death of claudius was known. the art with which agrippina averted this danger may excite our admiration of her virility and astuteness, but must inevitably lessen our appreciation of her sensibility. she announced that claudius was dangerously ill, and called an assembly of the senate. conscious that the servants of a palace commonly draw their pay from some one without, she put guards at every approach to the chamber of the dead man, and devised and carried out a tragi-comedy of the most extraordinary character. the clothes were drawn over the lifeless body, bandages and poultices were ostentatiously applied to it by her servants, and even the mimes, who had been wont to dance and ring their bells and crack their jokes before the emperor, were brought in to perpetrate their follies in the chamber of death. in a neighbouring room agrippina joined her conjugal sobs with the laments of the youthful britannicus. we are asked to believe, and we have little difficulty in believing, that while she clung in tears to the weeping youth, she was merely, with cold calculation, preventing him from leaving the palace, lest he should fall in the way of the guards, or some ambitious partisan, and be proclaimed emperor.
by noon the preparations of her agents were completed. the gates of the palace were thrown open, and nero was sent out, under the care of his military tutor burrus, the commander of the guards. a few voices were heard to mutter the name of britannicus, but the cry was feeble, and the response insignificant. the guards were long accustomed to see the superiority of nero over the sickly young prince, and their support was secured by a liberal promise of money. they conducted nero to the senate, and bade that helpless body accept him. the same evening a courier from agrippina brought word to sinuessa that nero was emperor. narcissus had lost, and his figure passes from the scene—with the93 inevitable rumour that he was imprisoned or poisoned by agrippina.
when the guards came to nero that night for the watchword he gave them “the best of mothers,” and agrippina looked confidently from her supreme height into the future. within five years her son would put her to death with horrible brutality, and jeer at her naked body. no one of the hundreds of thousands who hailed him with the wildest delight, and smiled at his amiable irregularities, can have foreseen so rapid and portentous a degradation. he was then a youth of seventeen, strikingly handsome both in face and figure, with blue-grey eyes and light curly hair and finely proportioned limbs. his tutor in arms pronounced him “a young apollo.” but his moral and intellectual trainer had failed as signally as his physical trainer had succeeded. seneca had vainly endeavoured to implant in his mind the germs of the noble stoic philosophy. men have disputed from all time whether it was the teacher or the doctrine that was at fault, while the eugenic school of our time would relieve both from censure, and regard nero’s mind as an incurably corrupt soil. one may venture to differ from both, and wonder if circumstances had not the greater share in his demoralization. however that may be, his accession to irresponsible power at such an age, in such surroundings as we shall discover about him, was a tragedy. his real advisers were young men, slightly older than himself, and better versed in the ways of luxury and vice; and the first use he made of his imperial power was to toss aside the treatises of the moralists, and give his whole attention to art, to chariot-racing, and to dissipation. what sinister use he made of the later hours, or earlier hours, of the day, and in what melancholy condition his girl-wife must have been, we shall see in the next chapter. here we have to consider only his relations with his mother.
for a few years after nero’s accession his mother willingly and profitably ruled in his name. it must not94 be imagined that she had, with the astuteness of a marie de’ medici, educated him in an indifference to politics so that she might indulge her own ambition. the appointment of seneca as his tutor is the most creditable, though unhappily the most futile, act of her career. when, however, the young emperor refused to be interested in any problem graver than the art of driving a chariot or playing the flute, she undertook his imperial duties, or continued to have that share in the ruling of the empire which she had had under claudius. she received embassies, was surrounded by a special german guard when she went abroad, and was associated with nero on the coinage. it would be difficult to measure with any precision the influence which she had on roman affairs during this period, since seneca and burrus had an equal, if not greater, part in the government; but it may be recalled, with some honour to her, that the first four years of nero’s reign were amongst the happiest and most prosperous that rome witnessed during the first century.
the first thing to trouble her prosperous and happy use of power was a certain discontent arising from the old prejudice against women in politics. the senators were annoyed because she injudiciously listened to their debates. they met at this time in the imperial library, and the empress had a door pierced into it from the palace, and sat listening behind a curtain. the senators are said to have punished her indiscretion by making unflattering remarks in the course of the debates, though it is difficult to believe that they were still capable of so courageous a protest. on one occasion an important embassy came to rome from armenia, and agrippina declared that she would sit by the side of nero when he received it. this seems to have been a startling innovation, and seneca had to avert trouble by advising nero to descend from his throne, when his mother entered, and lead her affectionately from the room.
an incident that shortly occurred gave a nucleus for the crystallization of this diffused annoyance. a distinguished95 noble, junius silanus, died, and the familiar whisper of foul play went once more through all classes of the citizens. his brother lucius silanus was the young noble who had been betrothed to octavia, and had so cruelly been separated from her by agrippina. was it not natural that junius silanus should wish to avenge his younger brother, and that agrippina should detect his plot and have him removed? tacitus and dio fully believed this. as in so many of these cases, however, the only ground for the charge, as far as we know, is the fact that silanus undoubtedly died, and we will not waste time in discussing it. the senator had so little of the conspirator in him that even caligula used to call him “the golden sheep.” but rome was convinced that the empress was guilty, and the story spread, and is fully accepted by tacitus, that she meditated a long series of executions of the men who had opposed her progress, and that seneca and burrus had to restrain her bloody vindictiveness.
one may decline to accept this charge on such poor and disputable evidence; but agrippina now incurred the anger of her son, and descended rapidly from the height of her power. the young emperor had, as i said, used his imperial license to ignore his tutors and indulge his low and sensual tastes. he attracted to his side a band of the most dissipated youths in the city, and his nightly exploits were the talk of rome. one of the less hurtful of his indulgences was his passion for acte, a beautiful freed slave from the eastern market, whom dumas has made familiar. agrippina resented the liaison—apparently from a sense of justice to octavia—and rebuked nero. he turned on her with violence the moment she tried to check his licentious ways, and threatened to discharge her favourite pallas. agrippina was alarmed. she saw a powerful party, deeply hostile to herself, growing up about her son, and she felt that the support of seneca and burrus was being withdrawn. she ceased to speak of acte, and regarded with silent distress the coarse ways that her son was exhibiting on the streets every night. a reconciliation96 at this heavy price could not last. shortly afterwards nero sent her some rich jewels and robes from the imperial treasures. she chose to regard this as a reminder that the imperial wardrobe was no longer at her disposal, and angrily refused the gifts.
pallas was at once impeached for treason. the charge was so clumsy, and seneca defended him so ably, that he had to be acquitted; but agrippina forgot discretion in her victory. in the course of a quarrel with nero, she threatened to retire to the camp of the pr?torian guard with britannicus and have him proclaimed emperor. the only effect of this was to open nero’s long career of crime. the few months—we are still at the beginning of the year 55—of unrestrained license and flattery had destroyed the little moral restraint that seneca had taught him, and he determined to murder britannicus. in the roman prison was the skilled poisoner, locusta, whom agrippina was believed to have employed in the murder of her husband. nero ordered her to prepare a deadly poison, and, when the first preparation failed, he had her brought to the palace. with blows and oaths he forced her to prepare a more deadly drug under his eyes, and it was used the same evening. britannicus sat with his friends on one of the couches in the dining-hall at the palace, and asked for a drink. it was winter-time, and the wine (not soup, as serviez says) was heated. he complained that it was too hot, and the poison was administered with the cooling water, so that the taster would not need to take a second sip.
a great horror fell upon the room as britannicus, writhing with pain, sank to the floor. octavia sat in silent terror by the side of her husband, who carelessly observed that britannicus had one of his usual epileptic fits. agrippina openly betrayed her horror and disgust, and from that date was regarded by her son with bitter hostility. whether or no it be true that nero whitened with chalk the spots which broke out on the body, the substance of the story cannot be discredited. it is true that nero was yet in his97 eighteenth year only, but his conduct had been vicious and unbridled to a criminal extent. within a very short time we shall find him sinking to the lowest depths of brutality. the fact that he is praised in the treatise “on clemency,” which seneca wrote about that time, can only show either that the too indulgent tutor refused to believe the crime, or that, as we have too many reasons to know, the distinguished stoic came perilously close to that art of casuistry in which moralists of many schools have been apt to excel.
in her abhorrence of the foul deed agrippina drew closer to the tender and virtuous octavia, and confronted nero with a sternness that had been too long delayed. the breach between them widened. one day nero ordered that two and a half million denarii should be given to his favourite secretary. agrippina had the mass of coin brought under the eyes of the emperor, to make him realize his extravagance. he laughingly observed that he did not think the sum was so small, and ordered it to be doubled. the more lavishly he squandered, the more carefully agrippina saved, until the frivolous or malicious companions of his revels suggested that she was gathering funds for the purpose of dethroning him. he at once withdrew the guard he had given her, and ordered her to leave his palace.
agrippina had enjoyed only for one year the power which she had sought so long. she was yet only in her fortieth year. the envoys of kings had sued humbly at her feet, and her litter and guard had flashed through the streets of rome with an impression of greatness that no other woman then known had ever possessed. but the reins passed from her hands to her brutal son and his despicable courtiers. from the palace she passed, with a few devoted followers, to the small mansion of her grandmother antonia, and the sycophantic courtiers deserted her. graver citizens, watching the rapid degradation of the imperial house, followed her with sympathy, but few dared to visit her in the lonely mansion. unfortunately, she quarrelled with one of these few, and came near to losing her life.
98 her old friend julia silana, a woman of great wealth but very faded beauty, proposed to marry a handsome young roman knight. agrippina imprudently advised him not to marry a woman of such advanced years and so adventurous a record. her words were repeated to julia, and friendship was exchanged for the most bitter animosity. julia silana was childless, and it is conjectured that agrippina hoped to inherit her wealth if she died unmarried. whether she believed this or no, julia conceived a deep hatred, and induced two of her clients to accuse agrippina of high treason. nero seems to have been in an uncertain mood, and an ingenious plot was devised to win him.
one night when he lay, flushed with wine, after the banquet, his favourite comedian paris came to amuse him. nero noticed that the man was agitated and less merry than usual, and asked the reason. paris, who was acting in the service of the plotters, confessed with artistic tears that there was a conspiracy afoot to dethrone his noble master; that agrippina was about to marry rubellius plautus, a senator of imperial descent, and seize the throne. the inebriated emperor at once demanded their heads, but seneca and burrus restrained him, and compelled him to hear agrippina on the morrow. in her speech, which tacitus has preserved, she refuted and routed her assailants with such vigour that she was, apparently, reconciled to nero and restored to some authority. julia silana was banished, domitia’s chamberlain (who had instructed the actor) was executed, and agrippina’s own followers were rewarded.
the two years that followed this reconciliation are obscure, and we can only dimly conjecture that agrippina had some peace and prestige, but no longer shared the imperial rule. then, in the year 58, another and unexpected woman came into the field, and agrippina sank rapidly toward an abyss of tragedy.
in an earlier chapter we saw that messalina drove to death a very wealthy and beautiful roman lady named popp?a sabina. it was her daughter, who had inherited99 her wealth and her beauty, that now attracted the amorous regard of the emperor. she had married one of nero’s favourite companions, who babbled in his cups of her dazzling beauty, and inflamed the desire of nero. in the next chapter we shall read of her natural charms, of the singular art with which she cultivated them and the coquetry with which she employed them, and of the superb and fabulous splendour of her equipage. it is enough to say here that nero visited her, learned that she was willing to be an empress, but not the mistress of an emperor, and resolved to make any sacrifice to secure so unique a treasure. the first victim to be sacrificed to the new passion was octavia, and the delicate and timid girl would make little resistance. but agrippina had espoused her cause with a spirit that redeems much of her irregular conduct, and she now saw that her own interest, as well as that of octavia, required that she should oppose popp?a with all her strength. in that resolution she wrote her death-sentence, not ignobly.
even if we refuse to admit some of the incredible statements that are made regarding it in the chronicles, it is clear that an extraordinary struggle now took place about the person of the emperor. the antagonists were popp?a and agrippina. octavia was one of those frail, lily-like roman women who never struggled; popp?a’s husband was easily set aside. popp?a affected coyness, and refused to have any other than conjugal relations with nero, while she employed all her charms to inflame him. agrippina fought so desperately that roman gossip, and roman historians, ascribed the most infamous devices to her. in spite of his expression of doubt, it is plain that tacitus shares the popular belief, which he relates, that agrippina used to sit with her son in loose robes when he was heated with wine, and to ride in the same litter with him. against this charge, however, dio defends her (lxi, 11). he says that one of nero’s courtesans resembled his mother, and that a light remark of his on that circumstance gave birth to the libel. popp?a would100 not be indisposed to encourage the story. on the other hand, mr. baring-gould attempts an untenable defence when he speaks of agrippina as “the poor old lady.” she was only in her forty-second year, and was a woman of great beauty and little scruple.
whatever arts agrippina employed in the struggle, she rapidly lost ground before so formidable a rival, and popp?a incited nero against her. he harassed her with lawsuits when she was in rome, and sent men to insult her when she withdrew to her villa in the country. before long agrippina became sensible that her struggle for power had passed into the appalling experience of a struggle for life against her own son. nero made several attempts to poison her, but she was on her guard against this familiar weapon. it is said that she had an antidote compounded of walnuts, figs, rue, and salt. then a freedman in nero’s suite suggested a more insidious scheme. her country house was in repair, and anicetus directed the workmen to saw through the heavy timber over her bed, so that the room would collapse when she went to rest. agrippina was warned, however, and the plot was defeated.
by the early spring of the year 59 nero had fallen into a mood of the most sombre and bitter dejection. popp?a continued to taunt him with his dependence on his mother, and to display her maddening charms just beyond the range of his eager arms. the better citizens of rome, on the other hand, now perceived his horrible design, and watched the struggle with anxiety. as he sat at the theatre one day in this mood, his attention was caught by one of the elaborate mechanical spectacles which were often put on the stage at the time. a ship sailed into view of the spectators, fell into pieces, and disgorged a number of wild beasts upon the stage. nero asked anicetus, who was a skilful mechanic, whether he could build a ship that would thus fall to pieces on the water at a given moment. the man promised to do so, and nero went down to the coast in more cheerful temper.
it was the month of march, when wealthy romans101 were wont to forsake the city for the marble villas which shone in the spring sun on the flowered hills about the northern corner of the bay of naples. the season began with the festival of minerva on march 19th. with some surprise and suspicion, agrippina, who had gone down to her villa, received an affectionate invitation to join her son at bai? for the celebration; and she heard from other quarters that he had announced a desire to be reconciled with her. she went on board the liburnian galley which lay off the gardens of her villa at antium, and sailed to bai?. nero met her in the imperial galley, kissed her affectionately, and invited her to a banquet which his friend otho, the husband of popp?a, would give that night in honour of their reconciliation. she consented, but it is clear that she wavered between her consciousness of the utter unscrupulousness of her son and the bright vision of a return to happiness which he held before her.
when the hour came for going, she was told that her galley had met with an accident, but that a superb gilded galley, with sails of silk and a military guard on board, had been sent as a love-gift from her son in commemoration of their restored affection. she gazed with suspicion on the beautiful object, as it lay mirrored in the waters of the little haven, and decided to go overland, on a litter, to otho’s villa. but the amiable behaviour of nero at the banquet dispelled the last shade of her suspicion. in the joy which his caresses and his well-feigned affection gave her, she did not notice the passing of the hours until midnight, when she rose to go. the beautiful ship with the gilded flanks and the silken sails awaited her once more, and this time she embarked on it. nero kissed her eyes and her hands, put his arms about her and pressed her to his bosom, held her while he gave a last long look into her eyes, and then—abandoned her to the murderer anicetus.
the galley shot out over the smooth scented waters under a canopy of brilliant stars. agrippina sat in her cabin, in the soft spring air, and talked about the happy102 future with her one male attendant, crepereius gallus, and her one maid, acerronia pollia. and suddenly, as they reached the deep water, there was an ugly crack, and the roof of the cabin fell on them. gallus was killed outright, but the two women were saved, as the stout walls failed to collapse, and there was some misunderstanding among the crew in the dark. the maid rushed to the deck calling for aid for the empress—others say that she represented herself as the empress—and was slain. agrippina listened with terror to the crash of timber and the rush of armed men, and realized the treachery of her son. still she did not court death. she dropped quietly over the side, and swam toward the distant shore. her strength gradually failed, and she was about to abandon the awful struggle, when some men who were fishing by night picked her up and took her ashore.
wounded by the falling timbers, exhausted by the struggle, stricken to the heart by the brutality of her son, she nevertheless rallied at once, and devised a fresh plan. she calmly sent a message to nero that, by the favour of the gods, she had survived the wreck of the galley which he had given her, but requested that he would not come to visit her until her wound was healed. without a word to her attendants about the horrible plot, she ordered the remedies for her condition, and trusted that nero would repent. through the remaining hours of the night she lay on her couch, with one maid in attendance, her room feebly lit by a single light. the whole country without was alive with men. the shore was lit up with their torches, and they gathered about the house to express their joy that agrippina had escaped shipwreck on the very night of so auspicious a reconciliation. as the first light of dawn broke on the encircling hills, anicetus and his men entered the house with nero’s reply. she read something of its tenor in their faces, and said to their leader: “hast thou come to visit me? then tell my son that i have recovered. hast thou come to slay me? then i say it is not my son who sent thee.” a sailor struck her over the head with a103 stick, and she saw that the end had come. tearing aside her loose robe, and baring her white body to the men, she said sadly: “strike here, anicetus, for it was here that nero was born.” she fell dead under a shower of blows.
nero had heard that his mother had escaped. dreading that she might stir into flame the resentment of rome, he called a council of his friends. seneca is said to have been silent, burrus indignant. at that moment agrippina’s chamberlain entered with her message. in a flash of cunning anicetus threw a sword at his feet, and pretended that he had been sent by agrippina to kill nero. the emperor accepted the sordid pretext, and, as burrus bluntly refused to send his soldiers to execute her, anicetus gladly charged himself with the task. he was appointed admiral of one of the fleets for his services. it is even recorded, though details like this must always be regarded with reserve, that when the servants bore their mistress’s body to the garden, and stripped it for the pile, nero stood by and said, jeeringly: “i had no idea she was so handsome.”
a report was issued, and a formal announcement made to the senate, that agrippina had attempted the emperor’s life, and that, when nero sent men to arrest her, she took her own life. and the senate licked the feet of nero, decreed games and festivals in gratitude for his preservation, and led the enthusiasm of the people. so well known was the murder that an actor referred mockingly to it in the theatre. “farewell, my father,” he said, eating a mushroom—“farewell, mother,” he added, imitating the action of a swimmer. the common folk repeated numbers of these grim jokes. but they enjoyed the games of thanksgiving, and senators and nobles took part in them on the stage and in the arena, and rome sank swiftly into the terrible degradation of nero’s later reign, which will occupy us in the next chapter.
it is hardly necessary to add a summary estimate of agrippina’s character. in the view of stahr and baring-gould and a few other recent writers, she was “queenly,104 honourable, and pure,” and had only the doubtful vices of ambition and pride. for tacitus and the other latin writers she was capable of any enormity, and guilty of most. it will be seen that i hold an intermediate view. she was a woman of great distinction, ability, and strength. had she lived in an age when virtue was not inexpedient, she would have been an illustrious and virtuous queen. but she had to struggle to obtain and retain power in an age when a new and more intellectual moral standard was replacing an older and more instinctive standard, and, where it seemed profitable, she availed herself of the moral scepticism which such a change always engenders. she was queenly, but she was not entirely honourable, and she was almost certainly not pure. but she served rome well, and left it happy and prosperous; and her unselfish passion for the advancement of her son, her chivalrous and fatal defence of his injured wife, and the bravery with which she met his unspeakable brutality, do much to outweigh her evil deeds in the scale of osiris.
