[Born B.C. 15. Died A.D. 33. Aged 48.]
Daughter of Vipsanius Agrippa, and wife of Cæsar Germanicus, to whom she
bore nine children. Accompanied her husband in all his campaigns, and
aided him by her cool foresight and energetic will: once, on the Rhine,
in his absence, by her heroic resistance to the timid counsels of those
about her, saving the relics of an army. On his death in Asia, she
returned to Rome, whence she was banished by Tiberius, jealous of her
popularity. After three years’ persecution and suffering, she
died--possibly by her own hand. She had all the lofty qualities of a
Roman matron--nobility of soul, purity, and a devoted love for her
husband and children. Tacitus says of her, that “the cares which belong
to men supplanted, in her mind, the vices common to her sex.”
[From the seated Statue, for account of which, see No. 281, of
Hand-book to Roman Court, and Nave.]