Agrippina

Agrippina was the mother of Nero

The Death of Agrippina

many of the accounts of the death of Agrippina were from writers who looked upon Nero unfavorably although that should not discount the accounts that we have from Tacitus, Suetonius and others. Apparently, there was bad blood between them and they had both separately concluded that the other should die or risk dying at the other's hands. And it came to pass that Nero got wind of a attempt of Agrippina to assassinate and sent Agerinus to dispatch him. The coup failed and Nero amde plans to get rid of her before she had another opportunity to depose him. Alexis Dawson in her article What Ever Happened to Lady Agrippina accuses Tacitus of not letting the facts get in the way of a good story. It's true that it is a facinating story, twisting and turning upon every fate.

To summarize it goes something like this. After Agrippina's failed coup attempt, Nero throws a party for her and sends her on her way in the evening on a booby-trapped boat. The ceiling in her cabin is designed to cave in and being lined with lead it will, it is hoped, crush her and sink the boat. However, the falling ceiling fails to crush her as the couch breaks its fall. Some of the crew are in on the ruse and proceed to scupper the boat. Agrippina manages to swim out of the boat and then too safety on her island retreat. Various people then come to her rescue but she tells them to tell Nero not to worry and not to send help. Agrippina is not dull and she has figured out who is behind the plot. Despite her entreaties, Nero despatches some soldiers who turn up at her house and kill her.

Of this account Dawson asserts that from beginning to end [they] are a farrago of lies and absurdities and she accuses Tacitus of moving around events to suit his narrative and create a compelling motive. Suetonius, she believes, is a little more believable by setting the action in her country estate but finds the method of murder, a collapsing roof, risible.