Vipsania Agrippina or most commonly known as Agrippina Major or Agrippina the Elder ( Major Latin for the elder, Classical Latin:, 14 BC – 17 October 33 ) was a distinguished and prominent Roman woman of the first century AD.

Agrippina was the wife of the general and statesman Germanicus and a relative to the first Roman Emperors.

Agrippina was born as the second daughter and fourth child to Roman statesman and Augustus ’ ally Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa and Julia the Elder.

Agrippina ’ s mother Julia was the only natural child born to Augustus from his second marriage to noblewoman Scribonia.

Vipsania Agrippina was Agrippa ’ s first daughter and first child from his first marriage to Pomponia Caecilia Attica.

Vipsania Agrippina later married senator and consul Gaius Asinius Gallus Saloninus after Tiberius was forced to divorce her and marry Julia the Elder.

Agrippina was born in Athens, as in the year of her birth Agrippa was in that city completing official duties on behalf of Augustus.

Julia was banished for her remaining years and Agrippina never saw her again.

With her siblings, Agrippina was raised in Rome by her maternal grandfather and maternal step-grandmother Livia Drusilla.

As a member of the imperial family, Agrippina was expected to display frugality, chastity and domesticity, all traditional virtues for a noble Roman woman.

Eventually Agrippina was proud of her large family and this was a part of the reason she was popular with Roman citizens.

Agrippina ’ s actions were considered unusual as for a Roman wife, because a conventional Roman wife was required to stay home.

It was widely suspected that Germanicus had been poisoned or perhaps on the orders of Tiberius, with Agrippina believing he was assassinated.

Agrippina was in grief when Germanicus died.

This was the last time that Tiberius invited Agrippina to his dinner table.

Refusing to eat, Agrippina was force-fed but later starved herself to death.

A second memoir was about the fortunes of her mother ’ s family and the last memoir recorded the misfortunes ( casus suorum ) of the family of Agrippina and Germanicus.

Agrippina was the first Roman matron to have more than one child from her family to reign on the Roman throne.

Through Nero, Agrippina was the paternal great-grandmother of Claudia Augusta, ( Nero's only child through his second marriage to Poppaea Sabina ).

The six children who survived to adulthood were the sons: Nero Caesar, Drusus Caesar and Caligula born as Gaius Julius Caesar Germanicus and the daughters Julia Agrippina or Agrippina the Younger, Julia Drusilla and Julia Livilla.

Their children were born at various places throughout the Roman Empire and Agrippina acquired a well-deserved reputation for successful childbearing.

According to Suetonius, Caligula nursed a rumor that Augustus and Julia the Elder had an incestuous union from which Agrippina the Elder had been born.

Also that year, Claudius had founded a Roman colony and called the colony Colonia Claudia Ara Agrippinensis or Agrippinensium, today known as Cologne, after Agrippina who was born there.

Caligula was born in Antium, the third of six surviving children born to Germanicus and Germanicus ' second cousin Agrippina the Elder.

* Vipsania Marcella Agrippina ( born 27 BC ), daughter of Claudia Marcella Major and first wife of general Publius Quinctilius Varus

In 50 AD, Agrippina the Younger, wife of the Emperor Claudius, who was born in Cologne, asked for her home village to be elevated to the status of a colonia — a city under Roman law.

* Nero Claudius Caesar Drusus Germanicus, better known as the emperor Nero, who reigned from AD 54 to 68 ; he was born Lucius Domitius Ahenobarbus to Gnaeus Domitius Ahenobarbus and Agrippina the Younger, but was adopted by the emperor Claudius in AD 50.

A colony for Roman veterans was founded in 50 AD under the patronage of Agrippa ’ s granddaughter, Agrippina the Younger, who herself had been born at Ara Ubiorum, the capital of the Ubii.

Caligula's mother Agrippina the Elder often accompanied her husband Germanicus on his campaigns in northern Germania, and the emperor Claudius was born in Gaul for this reason.

He was born to a Roman Senator, Tiberius Claudius Atticus Herodes and the wealthy heiress Vibullia Alcia Agrippina.

* Daughter, Elpinice – born as Appia Annia Claudia Atilia Regilla Elpinice Agrippina Atria Polla, 142-165

Vipsania Marcella Agrippina or Marcellina ( born 27 BC ) was the only daughter to Roman statesman Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa from his second wife Claudia Marcella Major.

Nero was born around AD 6, to Germanicus and Agrippina the Elder.

Nero was uncle to Julia Drusilla ( daughter of Caligula ) and through his sister Agrippina the Younger was uncle to the Emperor Nero ( born Lucius Domitius Ahenobarbus ).

According to Suetonius, he was congratulated by his friends for the birth of his son and Domitius said any child born to him and Agrippina would have a detestable nature and become a public danger, a fact that became true during the second part of Nero's reign.

Caecilia Attica's and Agrippa's daughter Vipsania Agrippina was born in 36 BC.

Pomponia Caecilia Attica, usually called Caecilia Attica ( born 51 BC ), was the daughter of Titus Pomponius Atticus, the first wife of general Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa, and mother of Vipsania Agrippina.

A few months before Augustus ’ death in 14, the emperor wrote and sent a letter to Agrippina mentioning how Caligula must be future emperor because at that time, no other child had this name.

Agrippina landing at Brundisium with the ashes of Germanicus, ( 1768, Benjamin West, oil on canvas ). In art, Agrippina has served as a symbol of marital devotion and fidelity.

Tiberius carefully staged to invite Agrippina to dinner at the imperial palace.

In prison at Pandataria, Agrippina protested violently.

On the day that the Circus Games occurred, Caligula had a statue made of Agrippina ’ s image to be paraded in a covered carriage at the Games.

In 47, Crispus died, and at his funeral, the rumor spread around that Agrippina poisoned Crispus to gain his estate.

Agrippina was met at the shore by crowds of admirers.

According to Suetonius, Nero was annoyed at his mother being too watchful and tried three times to poison Agrippina, but she took the antidotes in time and survived.

When Germanicus died at Antioch in 19 AD, his wife Agrippina the Elder returned to Rome with her six children where she became entangled in an increasingly bitter feud with Tiberius.

Benjamin West, Agrippina landing at Brundisium with the Ashes of Germanicus, Oil on canvas, c. 1768.

* The Germans destroy the Roman fleet on the Rhine, Bonosus is proclaimed emperor at Colonia Agrippina ( Cologne ).

It would be interesting to know her role in this, as well as in Tiberius ' divorce of Vipsania Agrippina in 12 BC at Augustus ' insistence: whether it was merely neutral or passive, or whether she actively colluded in Caesar's wishes.

The imperial heir Saloninus and the praetorian prefect Silvanus remained at Colonia Agrippina ( Cologne ), to keep the young heir out of danger and perhaps also as a control on Postumus ' ambitions.

In spring of the following year he first openly showed his disgust at the behaviour of Nero and the obsequiousness of the senate after the emperor's letter justifying the murder of Agrippina had been read, and various motions congratulating Nero proposed.

Porpora's first opera, Agrippina, was successfully performed at the Neapolitan court in 1708.

This splendid royal marriage probably gave Livilla grand aspirations for her future, perhaps at the expense of the ambition of Augustus ' granddaughters, Agrippina the Elder and Julia the Younger.

Agrippina landed at Bauli, between Baiae and Cape Misenum, and completed her journey in a litter.

281 ) at Cologne ( Colonia Agrippina ) jointly with Proculus.

Having appeared at Florence and Milan ( 1719 ), Bologna, Florence and Turin ( 1720 ), and Padua ( 1721 ), she returned to Venice for the season of 1721-22, singing in five operas, including Orlandini's Nerone: she sang Poppea, Faustina Octavia, while the fine contralto Diana Vico was Agrippina.

Although he was honoured with a consulship by the Emperor Claudius in 46, according to Cassius Dio ( 60. 1 ), and he served his proconsulship as Governor of the Province of Asia, Torquatus did not survive the death of that Emperor, whom the historian Tacitus hints was speeded on his way to Godhood by consuming funghi porcini doused with a dose of poison delectabili cibo boleto venenum — said to have been administered at the instigation of the emperor's fourth wife, Agrippina the Younger.

Later in 29, owing to the intrigues of Sejanus, and at the insistence of Tiberius, Nero and Agrippina were accused of treason.