The Annals and Agrippina

Tacitus: Nero and Agrippina (Annals 12-14)

In this course Dr Ed Bispham (University of Oxford) explores Books 12-14 of Tacitus’ Annals, focusing in particular on the figures of Nero and Agrippina the Younger. In the first lecture we think about the hexadic structure of Tacitus’ Annals as a whole and the significance of Agrippina as one of the few figures who features heavily in more than one hexad. In the second lecture, we think about Agrippina not simply as the wife or mother of the emperors, but as an exerciser of power in her own right, before turning in the third lecture to the ways in which Agrippina exploits the status and prestige of the Julio-Claudian dynasty to consolidate her own position. In the fourth lecture, we think about Agrippina’s alleged incestuous relationship with Nero, and what its portrayal in the Annals can tell us about how Tacitus works as historian, before turning in the fifth lecture to think about Nero’s relationship with the Senate – especially in the early part of his reign. Finally, in the sixth lecture, we think about the use of freedmen and -women in the reigns of Claudius and Nero, including the figures of Acte, Pallas, Polyclitus and Anicetus.

The Annals and Agrippina

In this lecture we think about the structure of Tacitus’ Annals and one of the central figures in Book 12-14 – Agrippina the Younger – focusing in particular on: (i) the hexadic structure of Tacitus’ Annals; (ii) the arresting start of Book 13 – Prima novo principatu mors (“The first death in the new principate…”); (iii) the figure of Agrippina the Younger; and (iv) the degree of misogyny with which powerful women were treated by elite male writers such as Tacitus.