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Agrippina the Elder

By N.S. Gill, About.com

Agrippina

Agrippina

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Definition: Agrippina the Elder was the daughter of Agrippa and Julia, daughter of the Emperor Augustus. Agrippina the Elder married Germanicus and bore him nine children, including the future Emperor Caligula and Agrippina the Younger.

Tiberius exiled Agrippina the Elder to the island of Pandateria in A.D. 29. There she starved herself to death. Agrippina the Elder died in A.D. 33.

Agrippina was known for her wifely virtues, especially fecundity, her children, and her family background that included being Augustus' granddaughter. Tacitus depicts her in somewhat masculine terms, acting like a general to the soldiers in Annals I and as fierce in Book II. Later Tacitus shows her as ambitious for power and arrogant.

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