Pity the poor Emperor Claudius (10 BC–54 AD). Lame and deaf, bullied by his family, humiliated by his predecessor, manipulated by his advisers, betrayed by his first wife, forced to divorce his second wife, and betrayed by his third wife. Uneasy lies the head that wears the crown.
In the year 49, Claudius was looking about for a fourth wife. The previous year he had been forced to order the death of Messalina, his third consort, who had conspired with her lover to overthrow the emperor. Despite his string of unhappy marital experiences, Claudius allowed himself to believe that a marriage to his niece Agrippina was in the public interest and would provide a loving stepmother to his two children, Octavia and Britannicus. Roman law, however, treated an uncle/niece marriage as illegal. The solution was simple: Claudius had the law changed.
Agrippina, the sister of the mad emperor Caligula, Claudius’s predecessor, was beautiful, ambitious, greedy, and ruthless. She soon had the hapless Claudius under her spell. Working to enrich herself and advance the cause of her son by her first marriage, the lad we know as Nero, Agrippina eliminated any rivals. She induced Claudius to disinherit young Britannicus, to adopt Nero as his own child, and to marry his daughter Octavia to Nero. With those manoeuvres complete, she then dispatched Claudius with a plate of poisoned mushrooms. While her husband’s body was still warm, she presented her son Nero to the Senate and the military as the next emperor.
With the 16-year-old Nero on the throne, Agrippina then began to act as if she herself was the ruler. Though Roman women were always legal minors, unable to sign contracts or sell property, or enter the precincts of the Senate, Agrippina behaved as regent for her son. Her face appeared on coins, she meddled in imperial policy, she attended the Senate (but behind a curtain), and arranged violent ends for those she considered her opponents.
Before too long, Nero came to resent his mother’s interference, especially in his choice of female companionship (he was not content with his wife Octavia, his stepsister). He began to ignore her wishes, humiliated her in public, and banished her from the palace. Finally, in the time-honoured tradition of his family, he began to think of murdering Agrippina.
The first method of disposing of his mother, which he discussed with his advisers, was poison. Such a means was easily available and quite effective but some of his counsellors advised against it; Nero had recently poisoned to death his stepbrother Britannicus and it was felt that two suspicious deaths so close together would cause public alarm.
Nonetheless, those arguing for this method of resolving family disputes won the day and poison was duly administered to the lady’s food. Alas for the plotters, Agrippina was one step ahead of them. Having played the game of thrones for so long, she knew its rules and had made herself immune to poisoning by regularly ingesting small amounts of different sorts of venom. Back to the drawing board. The next cunning plan was to construct a collapsing ceiling in her bedroom that would fall in the night and crush the dozing dowager empress. She seems to have been warned about this and amended her sleeping habits.
One of Nero’s inner circle who commanded a Roman fleet then proposed that a collapsing boat could be built. Who could blame Nero if his mother perished in an unfortunate accident at sea? The emperor then sent Agrippina a sweet message, expressing a desire to be reconciled, and inviting her to a pleasant day at the beach. Again, a comedy of errors. Once aboard, Agrippina escaped death when a booby-trapped awning loaded with lead fell, killing the man beside her. The device that was to sink the ship failed, but panicking oarsmen swamped the craft, tossing the passengers in the water. Agrippina, floundering in the Mediterranean, saw that her female attendant was not being rescued by men reaching out for her but was rather being beaten to death. She wisely chose to swim ashore unnoticed and made her way back to her lodgings.
Nero realized that Agrippina was now on to his plans and might rally the people against him so he resorted to simple violence—he sent men to finish her off in her bed. On March 23, 59 AD, the 43-year-old woman was assassinated.
According to the Roman historian Tacitus, Agrippina had long before consulted a Chaldean astronomer about her son Nero. She was told that he would ascend to the imperial throne and would order her murder. She replied, “Let him kill me, as long as he becomes emperor.” Agrippina’s wish was granted.
