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Agrippina I and Her Daughters: the Family of Germanicus

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Agrippina I and Her Daughters: the Family of Germanicus CHAPTER FIVE AGRIPPINA I AND HER DAUGHTERS: THE FAMILY OF GERMANICUS During the principate of Tiberius, the second most prominent women in the imagery of the imperial family after Livia were the wives of his two heirs, Livilla I, whose problematic images were discussed in the previous chapter, and Agrippina I, the wife of Germanicus and mother of nine children, including three boys who survived infancy. The terms of Augustus's will had required Tiberius to adopt Ger­ manicus, and therefore, whatever the second emperor's personal feel­ ings may have been, celebration of the role of Germanicus was a necessary aspect of his propaganda, stressing as it did his own legiti­ mate role in the planned line of succession that Augustus had estab­ lished. This emphasis on Germanicus as the next successor in turn required emphasis on the children of Germanicus, and the hope that they represented for the future of the dynasty-and consequently also on the woman whose remarkable fertility had provided three more potential heirs to the principate. An inscription discovered in Spain records a Senatorial decree shortly after Germanicus's death in A.D. 18 that mandated the construction of a triumphal arch in his honor in the Circus F1aminius at Rome. The decree specifies that the statuary group crowning the arch is to include Agrippina I and all the couple's children. 1 Although this arch and its sculptural pro­ gram are lost, the slightly later Leptis group, which honored both Germanicus and Drusus II, attest to the fact that patrons of provinces throughout the empire closely emulated this extravagant monument.2 Ironically, however, although the elder Agrippina's lifetime por­ trait type was an officially commissioned and displayed creation, it often served the propaganda purposes of dissidents and opponents 1 Gonzalez, 1984, 55-100. Text of inscription 58-61. Rose, 1997, 25-27, 108-110 no. 37. 2 Rose, 1997, 183 and pis. 21 7 A and B for a reconstruction of the group; Trillmich, 1988, passim, for its relationship to the arch of Germanicus in Rome. On the Neo-Punic inscription: Reynolds and Ward-Perkins, 1952, 12, no. 28; IOI. On the statue of Agrippina I: Trillmich, 1984, 137-138; Aurigemma, 1940, 79-80. 204 CHAPTER FIVE of the emperor during Tiberius's reign. The replicas of this portrait played their most important role after the deaths of both Agrippina I and Tiberius, during the principate of her son Gaius "Caligula," whose extravagant honors to the memory of his mother served not only to glorify his own immediate family but to implicitly rebuke the cruelty of his hated predecessor. Her portraits also had a promi­ nent place in imperial family groups during the reign of Claudius. In order to understand why her memory was so important to the imperial propaganda of Caligula and Claudius, it is necessary to understand the circumstances of her dramatic and eventful life, during much of which she, her husband, and her children were the objects of love and loyalty for a large faction of the Roman aristocracy, and thus a source of a divisive feud within the imperial family. 3 Agrippina I was the granddaughter of Augustus, one of the chil­ dren born to his daughter Julia I and his brilliant general Agrippa. (See Appendix, chart no. 7). The Senatus Consultum condemning Cn. Piso praises Agrippina I for the high respect in which Augustus held her ("q[u]oi erat probatissuma . .. "), a phrase that is probably more than just boilerplate flattery, since the marriage that Augustus arranged for her, and the line of succession that his will put in place, virtu­ ally guaranteed that the imperium would pass through her to her sons. She, unlike her sister Julia II, whose exile for adultery had embarrassed the imperial family, appeared to be a worthy candidate for such an honor. As with so many women of Augustus's family, her marriage to a cousin of the Claudian branch was designed to unite the Julian and Claudian houses more closely, but the marriage appears to have been a personal as well as dynastic success, and the Senatus Consultum praises her as well for the fidelity and concord ("unica concordia") of the match. 4 Agrippina I accompanied her husband on campaigns even at times of great personal danger, often pregnant, and with small children in tow. During the mutiny of AD. 14, her presence and that of the children proved enormously useful, since Germanicus was able to shame his rebellious troops into submission by threatening to send Agrippina I and the children from the camp, implying that the Roman soldiers could no longer be trusted with 3 Tac. Ann. 2.43. 4 S.C. de Cn. Pisone Patre 137-39; Eck, Caballos, and Fernandez, 1996, 48-49, 242. On Julia II: Suet. Aug. 64.1-2, 65.1, 72.3, 101.3-4; Augustus not only exiled his granddaughter, but razed her luxurious villa and forbade her burial in the impe­ rial mausoleum. .
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