Agrippa

Family: Julio-Claudian · Role: son-in-law · First appears: Augustus 42

In the time of Augustus, while the senate was restored to its former number and dignity, Agrippa served as Augustus’s son-in-law and supplied the town with abundant water. Augustus praised him as one who “has sufficiently provided for quenching your thirst,” and sometimes complained that he was hasty. Agrippa had children with Julia: Caius Caesar (grandson of Augustus), Lucius, Agrippa Postumus, Julia the Younger, and Agrippina the Elder.

When Marcellus was advanced to public offices, Agrippa resigned his employments and retired to Mitylene, so as not to stand in the way of his promotion; he was also described as having withdrawn through jealousy of Marcellus’s greater favour. After Caius Caesar (grandson of Augustus) and Lucius died, Augustus adopted Agrippa alongside Tiberius, but Agrippa was later discarded and banished, leaving Tiberius as the sole hope of succession.

In Tiberius’s reign, Agrippa was slain by the tribune commanding his guard upon a written order, and Tiberius withheld the announcement of Augustus’s death until Agrippa had been removed. Agrippa’s slave Clemens then gathered a considerable force to avenge his master’s death. Later, Caligula was unwilling to be called Agrippa’s grandson because of the obscurity of his birth.