Agrippina was an important member of the imperial family: sister to Emperor Gaius (better known as Caligula), wife and niece of his successor Claudius and mother of Nero. She was the great-granddaughter of Augustus and Mark Anthony and the niece of Tiberius.
Wildly popular with the Roman people, who greatly pitied her mother and brother who were forced into exile by Tiberius. She was later to be accused of numerous plots to kill her political opponents and numerous sexual crimes including extra-marital affairs and even incest with her son.
Agrippina is one of Rome's most fascinating personalities. There is relatively little evidence to back up the accusations laid at her door and yet her name survives two thousand years as that of the scheming wife and original virago. Looking beyond the outrage of the male Roman historians, we find a woman who wielded unprecedented power in one of history's most patriarchal cultures.
Anthony Barrett, Agrippina: Sex, Power and Politics in the Early Empire
Tacitus, The Histories