Agricola

Family: Roman · Role: soldier and governor · First appears: Agricola (2)

Agricola was born on 13 June during the third Consulship of the Emperor Caligula. In A.D. 59–62, Suetonius Paulinus chose and distinguished him as his military companion in Britain, where he learned “The first rudiments of war he learnt in Britain”. After returning to Rome, he married Domitia Decidiana; in Asia, while serving under Salvius Titianus, he welcomed a daughter, though the son born before her soon died. In A.D. 69–70, Otho’s fleet killed Agricola’s mother and plundered her estate, and Agricola joined Vespasian’s party while travelling to her funeral.

Early in Vespasian’s reign, Mucianus appointed Agricola to command the twentieth legion after finding him upright and magnanimous in raising forces. In Britain, Petilius Cerialis entrusted him with increasingly large forces and shared military glory with him. After his return, Vespasian raised him to patrician rank and appointed him governor of Aquitaine; after less than three years he was recalled to the Consulship, then promoted to govern Britain and invested with the Pontificate.

In Britain, Agricola defeated the Ordovicans and forced the surrender of the Isle of Anglesey, a conquest from which Paulinus had earlier been recalled. In A.D. 79–83, he suppressed oppressive exactions, secured Roman control with hostages, garrisons, and forts, extended conquest to the mouth of the Tay, subdued previously unknown nations, and explored beyond Bodotria by fleet. He received an expelled petty king into protection, counterattacked the Britons, and advanced the Roman forces towards Ireland. In A.D. 84, after losing a son, he completed the conquest and subjugation of Britain, defeating Galgacus and the assembled Britons; after the battle, he received hostages and surrendered the pacified province to his successor.

Agricola reported his victories to Domitian, who secured for him triumphal ornaments and a laurel-crowned statue, while also treating his renown as a threat and repeatedly having him accused in his absence. In A.D. 90, Domitian excused him from the proconsulship but withheld the customary salary. Agricola died on 24 August, in his fifty-sixth year, after an illness; in A.D. 93 his will left Domitian joint heir with Domitia Decidiana and his daughter, to the Emperor’s evident satisfaction.