Vibulenus Agrippa

Vibulenus Agrippa (called Vibullius Agrippa in Dio's Roman History[1]) was a Roman knight of the Equestrian rank who was accused of some crime, probably treason, before the senate in the final years of the reign of Tiberius, in 36 AD.[2] His case is often mentioned to highlight the frequency with which ordinary citizens were being executed in that time, and for the novelty of the case's outcome: Vibulenus faced his accusers in the senate and swallowed poison that he had brought with him in a ring.[3][1]

For others with this surname, see Agrippa (disambiguation).

Undeterred, the lictors rushed his body to the prison (the tullianum) and hanged or strangled him anyway, but he was already dead.[4] Unlike an execution, this sort of pre-emptive suicide prevented, at least in theory, the state or his accusers from claiming a share of his property,[5][6] and allowed the suicide to be buried, provided they died before being convicted.[7] Tacitus does not record whether Agrippa's mock execution in the tullianum was sufficient to satisfy the letter of the law and allow confiscation of his property.

References
  1. Cassius Dio, lviii. 21
  2. Smith, William (1867). "Agrippa, Vibulenus". In Smith, William (ed.). Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology. 1. Boston: Little, Brown and Company. p. 77.
  3. Tacitus, Annales vi. 40
  4. Lynam, Robert; John Tahourdin White (1850). The History of the Roman Emperors: From Augustus to the Death of Marcus Antoninus. London: Simpkin, Marshall & Co. pp. 204–205.
  5. Edwards, Catharine (2007). Death in Ancient Rome. New Haven: Yale University Press. p. 246. ISBN 0-300-11208-4.
  6. Plass, Paul (1995). The Game of Death in Ancient Rome: Arena Sport and Political Suicide. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press. p. 95. ISBN 0-299-14574-3.
  7. Levick, Barbara (1999). Tiberius the Politician. Routledge. pp. 188–189. ISBN 0-415-21753-9.

 This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Smith, William, ed. (1870). "article name needed". Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology.

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