Murder of Agrippina (March AD 59)

In March AD 59 Nero invited his mother to Baiae and gave her a ship that was meant to fall apart. The ship did not sink, and Agrippina escaped by swimming. That same night Anicetus and a party of sailors killed her in her villa (Tacitus, Annals 14.3–8). We know the details, including her last words, from accounts that may have been embellished for literary effect.