Agrippina vs Messalina: Securing the Roman Empire's Bloodline

Agrippina the Younger was one of the most notorious and influential of the Roman empresses in the 1st century AD. She was the sister of the Emperor Caligula, a wife of the Emperor Claudius and mother of the Emperor Nero. Through careful political manoeuvres, she acquired a dominant position for herself in Rome. In 39 AD she was exiled for allegedly participating in a plot against Caligula and later it was widely thought that she killed Claudius with poison. When Nero came to the throne, he was only 16 so Agrippina took on the role of regent until he began to exert his authority. After relations between Agrippina and Nero soured, he had her murdered.

With:

Catharine Edwards Professor of Classics and Ancient History at Birkbeck, University of London

Alice König Lecturer in Latin and Classical Studies at the University of St Andrews

Matthew Nicholls Associate Professor of Classics at the University of Reading

Producer: Victoria Brignell.