Agrippina's Influence
While in exile, Agrippina’s husband Ahenobarbus died of dropsy and her son was sent to live with a relative of Caligula. Caligula used the death of Ahenobarbus to seize most of Lucius’s assets and inheritance, essentially leaving him in poverty (Agrippina the Younger). Potentially alienating the entire empire including his Praetorian Guard with his bizarre and erratic behavior, Caligula, his wife, and his daughter were murdered on January 24 AD 41. (Agrippina II). After his assassination, Caligula was replaced by his paternal uncle, Tiberius Claudius Caesar. Better known as Claudius, Tiberius Claudius Caesar lifted the exile on his nieces, Agrippina and Livilla, restored their properties and wealth, and reinstated his nephew Lucius’s inheritance
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The marriage between an uncle and niece was illegal as stated in Roman law and Claudius had to procure an act of the Senate to make the marriage legal (The Woman Who Would Rule Rome). Agrippina was in her early thirties and had married a man almost 30 years her senior. Claudius was elderly and crippled when he married Agrippina. Sources differ to whether it was uncle or niece, or both, who sought the marriage. Some describe Agrippina as a seductress who promiscuously charms to Claudius. Other deem Claudius as the initiator, claiming he selected Agrippina as his wife after careful deliberation with advisers (The Woman Who Would Rule Rome). In truth the union was probably a collaborative political arrangement that would benefit both parties. For even before the marriage to Agrippina, the princeps betrothed his daughter to her son Lucius (WWWRR). After the wedding nuptials, Agrippina must have realized that it was possible to make her new husband choose her son Lucius as an heir instead of his biological son. All she would have to do was convince Claudius to adopt him, and then show him that Lucius was a better candidate for the job than his son (Agrippina the Younger). Agrippina showered Lucius with the empire’s brightest tutors. She focused her attention on the Praetorian Guard, the elite
The marriage between an uncle and niece was illegal as stated in Roman law and Claudius had to procure an act of the Senate to make the marriage legal (The Woman Who Would Rule Rome). Agrippina was in her early thirties and had married a man almost 30 years her senior. Claudius was elderly and crippled when he married Agrippina. Sources differ to whether it was uncle or niece, or both, who sought the marriage. Some describe Agrippina as a seductress who promiscuously charms to Claudius. Other deem Claudius as the initiator, claiming he selected Agrippina as his wife after careful deliberation with advisers (The Woman Who Would Rule Rome). In truth the union was probably a collaborative political arrangement that would benefit both parties. For even before the marriage to Agrippina, the princeps betrothed his daughter to her son Lucius (WWWRR). After the wedding nuptials, Agrippina must have realized that it was possible to make her new husband choose her son Lucius as an heir instead of his biological son. All she would have to do was convince Claudius to adopt him, and then show him that Lucius was a better candidate for the job than his son (Agrippina the Younger). Agrippina showered Lucius with the empire’s brightest tutors. She focused her attention on the Praetorian Guard, the elite