Vipsania Agrippina

Roman imperial dynasties
Julio-Claudian dynasty

Vipsania Agrippina
Chronology
Augustus 27 BC – 14 AD
Tiberius 14–37 AD
Caligula 37–41 AD
Claudius 41–54 AD
Nero 54–68 AD
Family
Gens Julia
Gens Claudia
Julio-Claudian family tree
Category:Julio-Claudian dynasty
Succession
Preceded by
Roman Republic		 Followed by
Year of the Four Emperors

Vipsania Agrippina (/ˌæɡrəˈpaɪnə, -ˈpiː-/; 36 BC – 20 AD) was the first wife of the Emperor Tiberius. She was the daughter of Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa and Pomponia Caecilia Attica, granddaughter of Titus Pomponius Atticus.[1] By marriage, she was a great-niece to Quintus Tullius Cicero.

She was betrothed by Augustus and her father to Tiberius, the stepson of Augustus, before her first birthday. They were married around 19 BC.[2] Their son Drusus Julius Caesar was born in 14 BC.

Her father died in March 12 BC while married to his third wife Julia the Elder, the daughter of Augustus. Augustus forced Tiberius to divorce Vipsania and marry Julia, despite his love for the former and disapproval of the latter. At the time of their divorce, Vipsania was pregnant with a second child, who did not survive.[3]

Tiberius divorced Vipsania against his will in 11 BC (non sine magno angore animi ("not without great mental anguish") according to Suetonius) and never ceased to rue his action. On one occasion Tiberius caught sight of Vipsania and followed her with an intent and tearful gaze.[3] Precautions were taken to avoid further embarrassing meetings with her.

In 11 BC she married Gaius Asinius Gallus Saloninus,[4] a Senator and son of the famous orator Gaius Asinius Pollio. They had at least six sons. Vipsania Agrippina died in AD 20, a few days after the ovation of her son Drusus,[5] which took place on 28 May.

Tiberius hated Gallus, not least because Gallus claimed that Drusus was his own son. In 30, at Tiberius' instigation, the Senate was to declare Gallus a public enemy.[6] He died in prison in 33, of starvation.

Family

Vipsania and Gallus' known sons were:

  • Gaius Asinius Pollio - Consul in 23; exiled as an accuser of a conspiracy and later was put to death on orders from Empress Valeria Messalina.
  • Marcus Asinius Agrippa - Consul in 25 and died in the end of 26. Tacitus (Annals 4.61) describes him as "not unworthy of his ancestors". His son Marcus Asinius Marcellus was Consul in 54, at the time when the Emperor Claudius died.
  • Asinius Saloninus or (Gnaeus Asinius Saloninus) (sometimes wrongly called Salonius), died in 22. Tacitus describes him as an ‘eminent’ person. Saloninus was intended to marry one of the granddaughters of Emperor Tiberius.[7]
  • Servius Asinius Celer. He was consul suffectus in 38. From Emperor Caligula he purchased a fish at an enormous price. He is mentioned in the satire, by Seneca, The Pumpkinification of Claudius, where he is listed among the many people killed by that emperor; his death probably occurred sometime before mid-47. Asinius Celer seems to have had a daughter by the name of Asinia Agrippina, though her existence is obscure.
  • Asinius Gallus or Lucius Asinius Gallus (sometimes wrongly called Gallo). In 46 he conspired against Claudius and was forced to go into exile. Cassius Dio (60.27.5) describes him as being "very small and ugly". Later rehabilitated, he became Consul in 62.
  • Gnaeus Asinius. His existence is recorded by the townsfolk of Puteoli, whose patron he was. Nothing else is known about him. He may have been identical with Asinius Saloninus or the foregoing Asinius Gallus. Since the Asinius Gallus seems to have been the Lucius Asinius Gallus who became a Consul in 60, by exclusion of parts the Gnaeus Asinius must be the Asinius Saloninus.

A descendant of Vipsania and Gallus, Pomponia Graecina, became a distinguished lady. Pomponia might have been a Christian and lived an unhappy long life. Pomponia married Aulus Plautius. Plautius was a general in the conquest of Britain, which he received as a military ovation. Nero murdered their son, reportedly because Agrippina the Younger, mother of Nero, was in love with him and encouraged him to bid for the throne.

Another descendant or otherwise relative, Gaius Asinius Lepidus Praetextatus (210 – after 242), became a Consul in 242, being the son of Gaius Asinius Lepidus, Suffect Consul of Rome in 222 and wife (Vettia) (born 190 or 195).

Tacitus states that Vipsania was the only one of Agrippa's children to die without violence.[8] She was one of the leading women of her time, and between 21-23, her son Drusus honored her memory with statues, coins and inscriptions.

Robert Graves' novel I, Claudius mentions Tiberius following Vipsania with his eyes after their divorce, referencing Suetonius. Lives of the Twelve Caesars. Tiberius. 7.

The television adaptation went somewhat further, the second episode included a fairly lengthy scene between Tiberius and Vipsania on the eve of her second marriage, with Tiberius upset and regretting their divorce. She was played by Sheila Ruskin.

Ancestry

(See also Julio-Claudian family tree)

Notes

  1. ↑ Nepos, Atticus 12
  2. ↑ Ronald Syme, The Augustan Aristocracy (1987), 314.
  3. 1 2 Suetonius, Tiberius 7
  4. ↑ Tacitus, Annals 1.12
  5. ↑ Tacitus, Annals 3.19
  6. ↑ Cassius Dio, 58.3
  7. ↑ Tacitus, Annals 3.75
  8. ↑ Tacitus, Annals 3.19.4-5.
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