Quick questions on Agrippina the Younger's death and aftermath: HSC Ancient History

With Agrippina weakened but still dangerous, her personal enemy Junia Silana saw an opening. Silana used her clients Iturius and Calvisius to accuse Agrippina before Nero of plotting to marry Rubellius Plautus, a Julio-Claudian descendant through Tiberius's line, and to raise him to the throne in Nero's place. Domitia, Nero's aunt and another rival of Agrippina, supported the charge.

Suetonius (Nero 34) reports that Nero made three earlier attempts to kill Agrippina by poison, but she had immunised herself by taking small doses regularly (anticipating the threat). Other attempts (a collapsing ceiling, a sabotaged bed) are reported as plotted but not executed.

The festival of Minerva (Quinquatrus, 19 to 23 March) was a major spring religious event. Nero invited Agrippina to Baiae for the festival. She came suspicious but unable to refuse without provoking a public quarrel.

The boat had been prepared by Lucius Anicetus, prefect of the fleet at Misenum and a former tutor of Nero who hated Agrippina. The vessel was designed with a heavily leaded canopy over the stern that could be released by a mechanism, collapsing on the occupants and sinking the boat.

Nero, at his villa near Baiae, was hysterical. He summoned Burrus and Seneca and demanded their help. The two ministers were silent for a long time before Seneca asked Burrus whether the Guard could be ordered to act. Burrus replied that the Praetorians, devoted to the memory of Germanicus, would not strike his daughter; Anicetus must finish what he had begun (Tacitus, Annals 14.7).

Ancient writers (Tacitus, Suetonius) treat AD 59 as the turning point in Nero's reign. The traditional periodisation runs:

Suetonius (Nero 34) reports that Nero was haunted by his mother's ghost. He attended ceremonies to expiate the killing. He hired Persian magi to summon her shade. He nightmared.

Some defacement of Agrippina's images followed her death. The damnatio was not formally decreed by the Senate; the senatorial decree (preserved in Tacitus's account) had described her death as a justified response to her crimes but had not condemned her as enemy of the state.

Tacitus (Annals 14.1) notes that some traditions place Poppaea's decisive hold over Nero later, around AD 62, when she is more securely attested as pressing for the removal of Octavia. If Poppaea's influence over Nero was not yet dominant in early AD 59, she cannot be the whole explanation for the timing of the murder that March. This is a rare moment of a hostile source questioning its own inherited motive, and it is exactly the kind of detail examiners reward candidates for noticing rather than repeating the Poppaea story uncritically.

Nero received Agrippina warmly. They dined together (Tacitus, Annals 14.4). Nero leaned on her breast, kissed her, and made a show of filial affection.

Agrippina was to return by sea from Baiae to her villa near Bauli on the Lucrine Lake. Nero suggested the new ceremonial boat for the short voyage; the night was clear; the journey was a few miles.

Agrippina embarked with two attendants, Crepereius Gallus and Acerronia Polla. The boat moved out on the calm sea.

The canopy was released. Crepereius Gallus, standing by the helm, was killed instantly. Agrippina and Acerronia were on the couch under the canopy; they were protected by its raised sides.

The crew had been instructed to capsize the boat, but most were unaware of the plot and the heavy weight failed to sink the vessel.

Acerronia, in the water, called out that she was Agrippina, hoping for rescue. The plotting oarsmen beat her to death with their oars and boat-hooks.