Page 22 - All About History - Issue 72-18

ROMAN EMPIRE

Hall of Fame

INFLUENTIALWOMEN

While women were shunned in Roman politics, some were determined

to make their mark on society with power plays and cunning

AGRIPPINA THE YOUNGER

16 CE-59 CE

The wife, niece, mother and sister of some of Rome’s
most famous emperors, Agrippina was always going to
Livia managed to have an eventful and high-profile life, but her existence
still be influential in seems to have slipped out of many history books over
Roman politics after
Augustus’ death the years. Exiled by her brother Caligula for plotting
against him, she returned to Rome under the rule of
her uncle Claudius. Agrippina was looking for power,
and so she married her uncle, and she even made her
son, Nero, marry incestuously into the family. When
Claudius died, Nero ruled and Agrippina became one
of the most powerful people in the empire – until the
Livia was relationship between mother and son deteriorated.
deified by her Her life ended when she was brutally murdered by
her son’s henchmen.
grandson Claudius
LIVIA DRUSILLA in 42 CE,

58BCE–29CE 13 years after
Quiet and confined to the her death
background of imperial Roman
life, Livia, the wife of Augustus, the
first Roman emperor, was the epitome of the perfect
Roman woman. While she never managed to bear
the leader any children of his own she still wielded Lucilla’s
power acting as his counsellor and advisor, always death was
ordered by
whispering ideas into his ear. She was rewarded with
her own
the ability to manage her own finances and a public brother
statue of herself – unheard of for the time. Livia
Agrippina found all
ensured that a son from her first marriage, Tiberius, the glory and power
would succeed Augustus and there were rumours she desired LUCILLA 149CE-181CE
that she killed Augustus to see her son rule. When Lucilla was 12, her father, Marcus
Aurelius, became co-emperor of Rome and
Messalina almost Lucilla was married to his equal, Lucius
managed to take VALERIA MESSALINA 17 CE-48 CE Verus. She dutifully bore her husband a
down the empire Claudius was a shy man with a stammer, child but Lucius died three years later.
from the inside
and that’s probably why Messalina married Her second marriage was to politician and
him. Stunningly beautiful and eager for commander Tiberius Claudius Pompeianus
power, Claudius would be no match for her and she gave him a son. These were
machinations. According to early imperial peaceful years, but that was all about to
Roman writers, Messalina slept her way around change. Her father died in 180 CE, leaving
the court while telling Claudius how to govern. her brother, Commodus, to ascend the
When Messalina gave her husband a son, throne. It only took a year for things to go
named Brittanicus after the invasion of Britain, downhill – realising her brother was tyrant,
her control over him increased. But this couldn’t Lucilla joined a plot to assassinate him but
go on forever – when Messalina fell in love with the conspirators were found out. In a fit of
a man named Gaius, they plotted to overthrow rage, Commodus exiled his sister to Capri
the emperor and rule together. They were found where she was executed.
out and murdered.