Agrippina

May 13, 2019
This remarkable biography from historian Southon (Marriage, Sex, and Death) follows Agrippina the Younger (15–59 CE), who, “as the daughter of an Imperator, the sister, niece, wife and mother of emperors... was never paralleled.” Her father was the admired Germanicus, her brother the emperor Caligula, her uncle and second husband Claudius, her son Nero. She was the first woman to assume the role of empress when she married Claudius, and she broke all customs: though she could not enter the senate or speak in public, she sat beside Claudius, negotiated diplomatically, appeared on coins, wrote her memoirs (a thing not done by women in those days), and donned the symbolic gold cape. She was possibly murdered (perhaps by her son Nero) at 43. Southon points out that “there is no objective, capital T truth about Agrippina,” because of the “glaring, crippling problems” with the source material on Agrippina’s life: the historical record is not “truthful in the way that you or I might conceive of truth” as it was recorded dismissively by sexist historians of the time and was written at least 50 years after Agrippina died. Southon delivers her research and speculations with enormous wit, a feminist outlook, and charming vulgarity. This sassy biography will rope in even those who think they’re not interested in ancient Rome.

Starred review from June 1, 2019
Agrippina?the sister of one emperor, wife of another, and mother of a third?is one of the most important female figures in the Julio-Claudian Roman Empire, and yet what we've known about her up-to-now is based on the lives of those powerful men as recounted by male historians who brought their own biases to their writing. The daughter of a popular general and his commanding wife, Agrippina was thrust into the limelight when her brother Caligula became emperor. She suffered a fall when she was implicated in a plot to murder him, but her exile ended when her uncle Claudius became emperor and, eventually, Agrippina's third husband. Much has been made of Agrippina's political machinations on behalf of Nero, the son who would become emperor and ultimately kill her, but Southon highlights the power Agrippina wielded on her own behalf, as well, something unheard of for a woman in the Roman Empire. There's nothing dry about this sharp, rollicking biography, except the delightful humor Southon peppers throughout its pages. With references to Turner & Hooch, Liam Gallagher, and Monty Python mingled with feminist observations about the deep misogyny of Roman culture, Southon makes a powerful case for why Agrippina's life is worthy of close examination and admiration today.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2019, American Library Association.)