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

Agrippina had been removed from the palace in AD 55 after the Acte affair. Britannicus was dead. Pallas had been dismissed. Burrus and Seneca governed through Nero.

Poppaea Sabina the Younger entered Nero's life around AD 58. She was the wife of Marcus Salvius Otho (the future emperor of AD 69). Beautiful, ambitious, and politically astute, she had been the wife of the equestrian Rufrius Crispinus before Otho.

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.

Agrippina, wounded on the shoulder, recognised what the boat had been. She also recognised that to admit knowledge would force Nero to a second attempt. She sent her freedman Agermus to Nero with a calm message: that by divine favour and the emperor's good fortune she had escaped an accident; that the emperor should not visit her; that she needed rest.

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).

Anicetus took Herculeius (a naval trierarch) and Obaritus (a centurion) and rode to Agrippina's villa with a detachment of marines. They surrounded the building. The servants fled. Anicetus's party broke in.

Nero retreated to the imperial villa at Naples. Seneca drafted the letter to the Senate (Tacitus, Annals 14.10 to 14.11) explaining the death. The letter claimed that Agermus had been sent to assassinate Nero; that the conspiracy had been Agrippina's; that on discovery she had taken her own life to escape the consequences; that her past crimes (the death of Julia Silana's relatives, the poisoning of Junius Silanus, the exile of Lollia Paulina, the persecution of Domitia) had finally caught up with her.

Tacitus (Annals 14.13) reports moral revulsion in the population alongside official thanksgivings. Graffiti and pasquinades circulated in Rome. Anonymous verses played on Nero's matricide. Nero stayed away from Rome for some months.

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 to 14.13). The fullest ancient account. Reads the murder as the central tragedy of Nero's reign.

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.