Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa (60?-12 B.C.) was a renowned Roman general and close friend of Octavian (Augustus).
Some of Agrippa's Achievements
Agrippa was consul first in 37 B.C., making him consul at the unusually young age of 23, according to Syme, in The Roman Revolution.* He helped defeat Sextus Pompey in 36. [See Battle of Naulochus.] Agrippa was also governor of Syria. As general, Agrippa defeated the forces of Mark Antony and Cleopatra at the Battle of Actium in 31 B.C.
Agrippa's Wives
Upon his victory at Actium, Augustus awarded his niece Marcella to Agrippa for a wife. In 21 B.C., Augustus married his own daughter Julia to Agrippa. By Julia, Agrippa had a daughter Agrippina, and three sons, Gaius and Lucius Caesar and Agrippa Postumus.
Building Projects
Agrippa became aedile in 33 in order to work on Augustus' aqueduct projects. He restored the Appia, Anio Vetus, and Marcia, and combined an existing aqueduct, the Tepula, with a new aqueduct, the Julia. Dio Cassius says Agrippa helped beautify Rome at private expense [Dio Cassius 53]. He also built the Basilica of Neptune in honor of the Augustan naval victories, the Laconian sudatorium, and the Pantheon.
*I've used the date of Agrippa's first consulship to count backwards.
"Agrippa was most likely born in 63 B.C.E. (possibly 64 B.C.E). Please refer to your primary sources (Dio) and your secondary sources (Syme, Reinhart, Wright and Shipley will suffice). If you are short on time, Meyer Reinhold's (Columbia 1933) dissertation gives a lovely overview of the subject."
Colin Forester-Hoare
Undergraduate Student of History and Classics
Supplemental Instructor
Carthage College
Kenosha, WI 53140
