2019-11-06 Wed

Julia Agrippina also called Agrippina the younger was a Roman Empress and one of the most prominent women in the Julio-Claudian dynasty. She was the daughter of Germanicus Caesar and Vipsania Agrippina, sister of Emperor Caligula and wife of Emperor Claudius. She is also the mother of the Roman Emperor Nero and a powerful influence on him during the early years of his reign.

Agrippina was born on 6 November in AD 15, at Oppidum Ubiorum, a Roman outpost on the Rhine River located in present-day Cologne, Germany. Many sources describe her personality as ruthless, ambitious, violent, and domineering. On the day that Agrippina married her uncle Claudius as her third husband/his fourth wife, she became an Empress and the most powerful woman in the Roman Empire.

Agrippina the Younger was featured on coins issued by his brother, Caligula. Besides this, the extraordinary issue of the Bithynian city of Apamea depicts four famous Roman women of the Julio-Claudian dynasty. The obverse has busts of Drusilla (left, facing right), Julia (center, facing) and Agrippina the Younger (right, facing left). On the other hand, the reverse displays a seated figure of their mother, Agrippina the Elder seated left, veiled, holding patera in the right hand, flanked by D - D (both reverted). The three sisters are identified as goddesses (DIVAE), reflecting the Eastern provincial tradition of worshipping the Roman emperor, and, evidently, members of his household, as gods.

Image Source: Heritage Auctions