One of history's most notorious monsters is rehabilitated as a
politically successful woman whose power and reputation in
first-century Rome fell victim to Roman sexism. Barrett
(Classics/Univ. of British Columbia; Caligula, 1990) begins with a
brief history of powerful Roman women before Agrippina, including
her great-grandmother Livia, wife of the first Roman emperor,
Augustus. Much of this section is overly familiar, reading at times
like a recap of I, Claudius. But this background gains significance
once Agrippina the Younger makes her appearance. Barrett
persuasively argues that Roman chroniclers were unable to see
Agrippina or her predecessors except through the stereotype of the
politically ambitious woman: a seductive poisoner with no sense of
moral bounds. By carefully weighing the historical record, taking
into account the distorting power of misogynist folklore, the
author disputes such commonplaces as the idea that Agrippina
murdered her husband, Claudius, and slept with her son Nero. His
Agrippina is a politically adroit consensus-builder whose influence
over two emperors contributed to the most enlightened portions of
their reigns. Her diplomatic skill falters only in the handling of
her teenage son - a miscalculation that leads to her execution in
54 A.D. on his orders. That Agrippina's murder was celebrated as a
just comeuppance demonstrates the persistence of the "age-old
resentment of powerful and ambitious women." Though Barrett draws
no contemporary analogies, the reader may easily do so. Despite the
high-mindedness of his central theme, the author is always alert to
the pleasures of "juicy anecdote[s]" (such as Agrippina's supposed
incest with her brother Caligula), and recounts them in full, if
only to discredit them. A scholarly yet accessible biography that
largely succeeds in replacing Grand Guignol with something more
satisfying: the tragedy of a natural leader born female in a
society afraid to be led by women. (Kirkus Reviews)
This study uses recent archaeological, numismatic and historical
evidence to reveal the character of Agrippina, a key imperial
figure of classical antiquity. She was the sister of Caligula, wife
of Claudius and mother of Nero. She attained a level of power
unprecedented for a woman in first century Rome with a lifestyle
which embraced treachery, incest and murder. Barrett assesses the
historical and personal impact of Agrippina's marriage to the
emperor Claudius and explores her relationship with her son, Nero,
the monster of her own making. Anthony Barrett is also the author
of "Caligula".
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