The Niece — Claudius: Found Behind a Curtain, Poisoned With Mushrooms?

After Messalina’s death the court is shaken, writes Tacitus. The freedmen quarrel over who will choose the emperor a new wife. Claudius cannot bear to be alone and listens to his wives (Annals 12.1). Suetonius adds the irony: he had promised the guardsmen he would remain a widower. That does not stop him from planning another wedding at once (Claudius 26).

There are three candidates. Lollia Paulina, Caligula’s former wife, is backed by the freedman Callistus. Aelia Paetina, the emperor’s former wife, is backed by Narcissus. Agrippina, Germanicus’s daughter, has Pallas. Claudius calls a council and has them lay out their arguments (12.1).

Narcissus speaks of the former marriage and of Antonia, the daughter the emperor has with Paetina. He argues that such a wife will not be a stepmother hostile to Britannicus and Octavia. Callistus replies that the childless Lollia will not be jealous. Pallas wins. Agrippina will bring Germanicus’s grandson into the emperor’s house, a descendant of a noble line and a link joining the descendants of the Claudii. And she is young and fertile besides (12.2).

Agrippina’s own charms help, too. Suetonius writes that she exploits the privilege of kinship: she kisses her uncle and caresses him (Claudius 26). Dio adds that it was Claudius who recalled her from the exile to which her own brother had sent her (60.4). Tacitus records that before she became a wife, she already had a wife’s power (12.3).

There is a problem, though: Romans regard marriage to a niece as incest. Agrippina also wants to match her son with the emperor’s daughter, but Octavia is betrothed to Lucius Silanus. Vitellius accuses him of loving his own sister too closely. Silanus loses his seat in the Senate, and the betrothal is broken off (12.3–4).

Then Vitellius speaks in the Senate. He argues that the emperor needs a wife, that Agrippina is of the noblest birth and fertile, and that what is new in Rome is commonplace in other lands (12.5–6). The Senate agrees, and the people cheer. In AD 49 Claudius marries his niece. On the wedding day Silanus takes his own life, and his sister is banished from Italy (12.8). Few followed the emperor’s example.

Tacitus judges it briefly: from now on the state is ruled by a woman. But not one like Messalina. Her rule is stern, almost masculine, full of gravity and often of arrogance, and at home free of debauchery, unless it serves power (12.7). One of Agrippina’s first decisions is to recall the philosopher Seneca from exile to teach her son (12.8).

Agrippina’s son is named Domitius and is twelve years old. The emperor has a son of his own, Britannicus. Pallas persuades Claudius to strengthen himself with a young co-ruler. Augustus did so, raising his stepsons though he had grandsons. Tiberius did so, adopting Germanicus though he had a son of his own (Tacitus 12.25).

Claudius agrees. And yet Suetonius records that several times he said in public that no one had ever been brought into the Claudian family by adoption (Claudius 39). Tacitus adds that scholars noticed this (12.25). In AD 50 the boy receives the name Nero, and Agrippina the title of Augusta (12.26). See how tangled the family becomes.

After the adoption, writes Tacitus, there is no one so pitiless that he does not feel sorry for Britannicus. Slowly even the slaves leave him. He himself mocks his stepmother’s insincere kindnesses, for, it is said, he did not lack intelligence (12.26). When Nero greets him by name and Britannicus answers “Domitius,” Agrippina complains to her husband. Claudius exiles or puts to death his son’s best tutors and gives him guardians chosen by his stepmother (12.41).

Nero receives the toga of manhood prematurely, so that he looks ready for public life. The Senate wants him to be consul at twenty and meanwhile grants him the title “Prince of the Youth.” At the games in the circus Britannicus rides in a boy’s toga, and Nero in triumphal robes. The people are to see who is who (12.41).

Check whether you know who is who in this household.

The family is arranged. Agrippina has the title of Augusta, and her son is first in line. What else does she lack?