Happy Women’s History Month! What better way to observe it than celebrating the most powerful woman in Roman history?
I’ve read a lot of books on the Julio-Claudians recently and this is probably the best. Maybe not even “probably.” Emma Southon does a great job explaining how Agrippina’s life was the fabric that wove the narrative of the dynasty together. She was born the year after Augustus’ death and she died during the reign of her son, the last of the family line. She held various roles from sister to sister-in-law to niece to empress to dowager empress or empress regent.
As she came to power, she showed how the role of women had changed. Whereas during Livia, Augustus’ wife, there was plenty of behind-the-scenes plotting, Agrippina seemed to take an active hand with both her husband’s reign (Claudius) and her son’s respectively. Southon does a great job of pointing out how limited historical sources are on this but does present a clear and compelling case that whatever Agrippina did, her power was unlike any woman in Rome who came before her.
She also cuts through the bs of the nasty rumors, mostly that Agrippina was an oversexed murderous monster. She does allow credence to the notion that she killed her husband but also shows how men documenting this history usually ladled those words on as a critique of a woman in power.
There’s perhaps a bit too much GIRLBOSS attitude towards someone who was a power player of the world’s dominant imperial family, slaveholders at that. Nevertheless, this is a quality image rehab by a great historian.