Agrippina Mother of Nero

As in his bestselling biography of Caligula, Professor Barrett combines immaculate scholarship with a gripping style.

In this dynamic new biography - the first on Agrippina in English - Professor Barrett uses the latest archaeological, numismatic and historical evidence to provide a close and detailed study of her life and career. He shows how Agrippina's political contribution to her time seems in fact to have been positive, and that when she is judged by her achievements she demands admiration. Revealing the true figure behind the propaganda and the political machinations of which she was capable, he assesses the impact of her marriage to the emperor Claudius, on the country and her family. Finally, he exposed her one real failing - her relationship with her son, the monster of her own making to whom, in horrific and violent circumstances, she would eventually fall victim.

Significant events and figures; background; family; daughter; sister; niece; wife; mother; the end; sources appendices: the year of Agrippina the younger's birth; the husbands of Domitia and Lepida III; the date of Nero's birth; the family of Marcus Aemilius Lepidus; Agrippina's movements in late 39; the date of Seneca's tutorship; the decline in Agrippina's power; the patronage of Seneca and Burrus in 54-9; SC on gold and silver coins of Nero; the final days of Agrippina.

Anthony Barrett is Professor of Classics at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver. He studied at the Universities of Oxford, Durham and Toronto and has written extensively in the field of classical antiquity.