9Agrippina the Younger

Agrippina the Younger was great-granddaughter of Livia and seems to have learned how to be a pushy parent from her ancestor. Agrippina married her uncle, the emperor Claudius, and brought to the Imperial Palace her son, the future emperor Nero. Claudius had his own son, Britannicus, who was his obvious heir.

Nero, older than the emperor’s son, had something his step-brother lacked: Agrippina’s support. On Claudius’ death, in which Agrippina was thought to have had a hand, Nero was placed on the throne and Britannicus sidelined until his own suspicious death. Nero relied on his powerful mother for the first few years of his reign until he began to chafe under her guidance. When his assassins reached her Agrippina she instructed them to stab her in the womb which had produced such a monstrous son.

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