Murder+of+Agrippina+(Exploding+Boat)

Tacitus, _Annales_, 14.3-8:

3 [|Nero], therefore, began to avoid private meetings with her; when she left for her gardens or the estates at Tusculum and Antium, he commended her intention of resting; finally, convinced that, wherever she might be kept, she was still an incubus, he decided to kill her, debating only whether by poison, the dagger, or some other form of violence. The first choice fell on poison. But, if it was to be given at the imperial table, then the death could not be referred to chance, since Britannicus had already met a similar fate. At the same time, it seemed an arduous task to tamper with the domestics of a woman whose experience of crime had made her vigilant for foul play; and, besides, she had herself fortified her system by taking antidotes in advance. Cold steel and bloodshed no one could devise a method of concealing: moreover, there was the risk that the agent chosen for such an atrocity might spurn his orders. Mother wit came to the rescue in the person of Anicetus the freedman, preceptor of Nero's boyish years, and detested by [|Agrippina] with a vigour which was reciprocated. Accordingly, he pointed out that it was possible to construct a ship, part of which could be artificially detached, well out at sea, and throw the unsuspecting passenger overboard:— "Nowhere had accident such scope as on salt water; and, if the lady should be cut off by shipwreck, who so captious as to read murder into the delinquency of wind and wave? The sovereign, naturally, would assign the deceased a temple and the other displays of filial piety."

4 This ingenuity commended itself: the date, too, was in its favour, as Nero was in the habit of celebrating the festival of Minerva[|6] at Baiae.[|7] Thither he proceeded to lure his mother, observing from time to time that outbreaks of parental anger had to be tolerated, and that he must show a forgiving spirit; his aim being to create a rumour of reconciliation, which Agrippina, with the easy faith of her sex in the agreeable, would probably accept. — In due course, she came. He went down to the beach to meet her (she was arriving from Antium), took her hand, embraced her, and escorted her to Bauli,the name of a villa washed by the waters of a cove between the promontory of Misenum and the lake of Baiae.[|9] Here, among others, stood a more handsomely appointed vessel; apparently one attention the more to his mother, as she had been accustomed to use a trireme with a crew of marines. Also, she had been invited to dinner for the occasion, so that night should be available for the concealment of the crime. It is well established that someone had played the informer, and that Agrippina, warned of the plot, hesitated whether to believe or not, but made the journey to Baiae in a litter. There her fears were relieved by the blandishments of a cordial welcome and a seat above the prince himself. At last, conversing freely, — one moment boyishly familiar, the next grave-browed as though making some serious communication, — Nero, after the banquet had been long protracted, escorted her on her way, clinging more closely than usual to her breast and kissing her eyes; possibly as a final touch of hypocrisy, or possibly the last look upon his doomed mother gave pause even to that brutal spirit.

5 A starlit night and the calm of an unruffled sea appeared to have been sent by Heaven to afford proof of guilt. The ship had made no great way, and two of Agrippina's household were in attendance, Crepereius Gallus standing not far from the tiller, while Acerronia, bending over the feet of the recumbent princess, recalled exultantly the penitence of the son and the re-entry of the mother into favour. Suddenly the signal was given: the canopy above them, which had been heavily weighted with lead, dropped, and Crepereius was crushed and killed on the spot. Agrippina and Acerronia were saved by the height of the couch-sides, which, as it happened, were too solid to give way under the impact. Nor did the break-up of the vessel follow: for confusion was universal, and even the men accessory to the plot were impeded by the large numbers of the ignorant. The crew then decided to throw their weight on one side and so capsize the ship; but, even on their own part, agreement came too slowly for a sudden emergency, and a counter-effort by others allowed the victims a gentler fall into the waves. Acerronia, however, incautious enough to raise the cry that she was Agrippina, and to demand aid for the emperor's mother, was despatched with poles, oars, and every nautical weapon that came to hand. Agrippina, silent and so not generally recognised, though she received one wound in the shoulder, swam until she was met by a few fishing-smacks, and so reached the Lucrine lake, whence she was carried into her own villa.

6 There she reflected on the evident purpose of the treacherous letter of invitation and the exceptional honour with which she had been treated, and on the fact that, hard by the shore, a vessel, driven by no gale and striking no reef, had collapsed at the top like an artificial structure on land. She reviewed as well the killing of Acerronia, glanced simultaneously at her own wound, and realized that the one defence against treachery was to leave it undetected. Accordingly she sent the freedman Agermus to carry word to her son that, thanks to divine kindness and to his fortunate star, she had survived a grave accident; but that, however great his alarm at his mother's danger, she begged him to defer the attention of a visit: for the moment, what she needed was rest. Meanwhile, with affected unconcern, she applied remedies to her wound and fomentations to her body: Acerronia's will, she gave instructions was to be sought, and her effects sealed up, — the sole measure not referable to dissimulation.

7 Meanwhile, as Nero was waiting for the messengers who should announce the doing of the deed, there came the news that she had escaped with a wound from a light blow, after running just sufficient risk to leave no doubt as to its author. Half-dead with terror, he protested that any moment she would be here, hot for vengeance. And whether she armed her slaves or inflamed the troops, or made her way to the senate and the people, and charged him with the wreck, her wound, and the slaying of her friends, what counter-resource was at his own disposal? Unless there was hope in Seneca and Burrus! He had summoned them immediately: whether to test their feeling, or as cognizant already of the secret, is questionable. — There followed, then, a long silence on the part of both: either they were reluctant to dissuade in vain, or they believed matters to have reached a point at which Agrippina must be forestalled or Nero perish. After a time, Seneca so far took the lead as to glance at Burrus and inquire if the fatal order should be given to the military. His answer was that the guards, pledged as they were to the Caesarian house as a whole, and attached to the memory of Germanicus, would flinch from drastic measures against his issue: Anicetus must redeem his promise. He, without any hesitation, asked to be given full charge of the crime. The words brought from Nero a declaration that that day presented him with an empire, and that he had a freedman to thank for so great a boon: Anicetus must go with speed and take an escort of men distinguished for implicit obedience to orders. He himself, on hearing that Agermus had come with a message from Agrippina, anticipated it by setting the stage for a charge of treason, threw a sword at his feet while he was doing his errand, then ordered his arrest as an assassin caught in the act; his intention being to concoct a tale that his mother had practised against the imperial life and taken refuge in suicide from the shame of detection.

8 In the interval, Agrippina's jeopardy, which was attributed to accident, had become generally known; and there was a rush to the beach, as man after man learned the news. Some swarmed up the sea-wall, some into the nearest fishing-boats: others were wading middle-deep into the surf, a few standing with outstretched arms. The whole shore rang with lamentations and vows and the din of conflicting questions and vague replies. A huge multitude streamed up with lights, and, when the knowledge of her safety spread, set out to offer congratulations; until, at the sight of an armed and threatening column, they were forced to scatter. Anicetus drew a cordon around the villa, and, breaking down the entrance, dragged off the slaves as they appeared, until he reached the bedroom-door. A few servants were standing by: the rest had fled in terror at the inrush of men. In the chamber was a dim light and a single waiting-maid; and Agrippina's anxiety deepened every instant. Why no one from her son — nor even Agermus? Had matters prospered, they would have worn another aspect. Now, nothing but solitude, hoarse alarms, and the symptoms of irremediable ill! Then the maid rose to go. "Dost thou too forsake me?" she began, and saw Anicetus behind her, accompanied by Herculeius, the trierarch, and Obaritus, a centurion of marines. "If he had come to visit the sick, he might take back word that she felt refreshed. If to do murder, she would believe nothing of her son: matricide was no article of their instructions." The executioners surrounded the couch, and the trierarch began by striking her on the head with a club. The centurion was drawing his sword to make an end, when she proffered her womb to the blow. "Strike here," she exclaimed, and was despatched with repeated wounds.

__**Questions**__

===First I will quickly summarize this story. Nero was the emperor of Rome who no longer wanted his mother Agrippina around. But he did not know how to kill her because poison and stabbing would be too obvious. Anicetus the freedman, who was one of Nero’s tutors, told Nero that a boat could be made that would break apart at sea and that would make Agrippina’s death look like an accident. Anicetus did not like Agrippina because he felt like she had too much power over Nero, and Agrippina did not like Anicetus because she felt like he was taking her control over Nero away. So Agrippina got onto the boat and set sail back to her villa. Halfway to her villa the boat broke apart, like it was supposed to, and almost killed Agrippina with falling debris. And then her friend called out to rescuers claiming to be Agrippina and was beaten to death by oars, so Agrippina avoided death again. She then swam to her villa and when Nero found this out sent Anicetus to kill her along with some other people. Agrippina eventually met her death by being stabbed to death, with the first blow to her womb.=== ===From this document we are able to gleam a lot of information about Rome. One piece of information that we are able to gleam is about the family of the emperor and some of the dynamics of it. Like how we are able to see that family members are not particularly close in the royal family and that they are trying to use each other in order to gain more power. Agrippina wants to use Nero and his power as emperor in order to be the real power in Rome. She basically wants Nero to be a puppet ruler with her pulling the strings behind the scenes. It was due to this that Nero wanted Agripinnna dead so that he would have full power and so that no one would every try to control again. This was a family that was more than willing to backstab each other. Another interesting aspect about Rome that we are able to gleam is that at this point in history is that the emperor cared greatly about public opinion. You can see this because of the fact that Nero does not want to kill Agrippina outright in a way that obviously means she was murdered such as stabbing or poisoning which were popular methods for assassination back in the ancient world. And because of Nero not wanting to lost public opinion about himself he had to get creative about how he was going to kill Agrippina. A possibility of why Nero cared a lot about public opinion was what happened to the emperor Caligula whose reign had ended only 13 years before Nero’s reign started. He had lost public opinion and was then killed by his subjects. So naturally Nero did not want to go thru the same treatment by the people.===

Great Fire of Rome and Persecution of Christians
===This is a great article because it also covers Nero. And it covers one of the events during Nero's reign that he is usually identified with. And you can see that Nero is usually painted as this crazy guy who burned down Rome.===

Early Life of Claudius
===This is an important article because it covers the early life of Claudius. Claudius was the emperor that came right before Nero. So it shows how Rome was right before Nero came into power. Also Claudius considered an embarrassment in the family while Nero was sort of a golden child.===

Character of Hadrian
===This is an important document because with it you can compare two emperors. Hadrian was considered one of the good emperors and Nero was considered one of the bad emperors. So you can compare personalities of someone who was considered good for Rome and someone who was considered bad for Rome.===

===About the author [|Tacitus]: He is a great source due to him being alive during and after Nero's reign. Due to him being from a high end family, some of his family members had dealt with Nero. He also had access to records that most people did not have access to at the time due to him being a Roman senator. For more information click on his name.===

Dear David, your links and subsidiary pages are definitely sufficient. They do a good job at explaining aspects of your document and they are fairly detailed. But your commentary could be stronger. Some of your sentences need to be reworded and I am not sure about using the word "gleam". Also, this document is important, make sure to really demonstrate its significance. Overall you did a nice job, good work. Sincerely, Sean Ellicott.

==== The article summary was very informational about the the story of the assassination of Nero's mother and the actions of Nero. A more focused look at the political intentions of Nero and his tutor Anicetus may help in understand why they wanted Agrippina dead. Also, it may be helpful to link the royal family feud to another aspect of Roman culture, by providing examples of other members of the royal family of Rome that plotted against each other, was it common? Overall a very good summary of the article and how the article helps understand Rome society. ====

Joshua Grow
I like your subsidiary links and thought they were very helpful. I also think you should add more about exactly why Nero wanted Agrippa dead. It shows a lot about how people in Rome really cared for themselves. I think the sentence structure could be stronger. Some sentences seem very casual to be referencing such an important event. Sarah Rosenquist

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