[Born at Oppidum Ubiorum (Cologne), A.D. 14-17. Died at Rome, A.D.
60.]
The ruthless and dissolute daughter of noble parents--of Germanicus and
Agrippina the elder. The unenviable mother of the madman, Nero. Upon the
death of her second husband, whom she was accused of poisoning, she
married her uncle Claudius, whom she induced to nominate Nero for his
successor, excluding his own son. She poisoned her uncle-husband, and
received her reward from her son, the matricide,--dying by hands
commissioned by him to the murder. Tacitus speaks of some interesting
memoirs of her time, written by Agrippina, to which he had access in
writing his history. She was beautiful, but ambitious, and as wicked as
she proved unfortunate.
[From the marble in the Capitoline Museum, at Rome.]