Quick questions on Agrippina the Younger's public image and propaganda: HSC Ancient History

The fundamental honour. Livia had received Augusta posthumously by Augustus's will (taking effect AD 14). Antonia Minor had received it from Caligula in AD 37 (and died within months). Messalina, Claudius's third wife, had been refused Augusta despite proposals from the Senate.

The coinage of AD 50 to 54 marks the visible elevation of Agrippina to a status approaching the emperor's.

The opening of Nero's reign produced the most striking coins in Agrippina's career.

The Sebasteion (a complex of imperial reliefs in the Carian city of Aphrodisias in western Asia Minor) preserves the most important sculptural evidence for Agrippina's public image.

The carpentum was a two-horse covered carriage previously restricted to the Vestal Virgins (for religious processions) and to triumphators. It had been granted to Antonia Minor by Caligula and shown on his coinage.

Priestess of Divus Claudius (AD 54). On Claudius's deification Agrippina was created flaminica (priestess) of the new imperial cult. The role gave her permanent religious presence in the city.

Agrippina's birthplace at Ara Ubiorum was elevated to colonial status and named for her in AD 50. The colony was settled with veterans of the Rhine legions. Agrippina was its patron.

A bronze tablet from Lyon (the Lugdunum Tablet, CIL XIII.1668) preserves the text of Claudius's speech to the Senate of AD 48 on admitting Gauls to the senate. The speech is the basis for Tacitus's version in Annals 11.23 to 11.25. Agrippina is not the subject but the tablet shows how Claudian imperial pronouncement (in which Agrippina shared) was disseminated.

Agrippina's public image deliberately invoked four predecessors.

Marble portraits of Agrippina survive in significant numbers. The standard types are:

Latin inscriptions across the empire honoured Agrippina. The most important categories:

Susan Wood (Imperial Women, 1999). Treats Agrippina's visual programme as the most systematic of any imperial woman before Julia Domna. The continuity with Livia is deliberate.

Imperial aurei and denarii of these years show overlapping portraits of Claudius and Agrippina on the obverse. Claudius in front wears a laurel wreath; Agrippina behind wears a corn-ear crown (corona spicea). The arrangement was new in Roman imperial coinage.

The corona spicea associated Agrippina with Ceres (Demeter), the goddess of grain and fertility. Livia had been depicted as Ceres on the Ara Pacis; the image meant nurturer of the state and abundance. Antonia Minor had used similar iconography.

Simple and direct. The reverse typically showed standard imperial themes (Salus, Pax, the legend SPQR).