He wanted to marry her, but public opinion did not look favorably upon a divorce from Octavia and his mother staunchly opposed it. Even after Britannicus had died, Agrippina tried to agitate the public against Nero, and Nero banished her from the family palace.īy 58, Nero had dismissed Acte and fallen for Poppaea Sabina, a noblewoman who was married to a member of the Roman aristocracy.

It is widely assumed that Nero poisoned Britannicus, although Nero claimed that he died from a seizure. However, Britannicus died suddenly in 55, the day before he was to be proclaimed an adult. She began championing Britannicus, then still a minor, as emperor. Although he and Octavia remained married, Nero began living openly with Acte as his wife in spite of his mother’s protests.Īfter Nero spurned his mother’s influence in both public and private affairs, she was infuriated.

When Nero began an affair with Claudia Acte, a former enslaved person, and threatened to divorce Octavia, Agrippina advocated for Octavia and demanded that her son dismiss Acte. She was angered by the more moderate advice of Nero’s advisors, his former tutor Seneca and the commander of the Praetorian Guard, Burrus.Īgrippina also tried to assert her authority in Nero’s private life. Agrippina’s InfluenceĪgrippina was domineering and attempted to influence her son’s rule.

He took the name Nero Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus, and ascended to the throne at the age of 17. Nero presented himself to the Senate to deliver a eulogy in Claudius’s honor and was named Emperor of Rome. She persuaded him to name Nero as his successor rather than his own son, Britannicus, and to offer his daughter, Octavia, as Nero’s wife, which he did in 50 A.D.Ĭlaudius died in 54 A.D., and it is widely suspected that Agrippina had him poisoned. He was educated in the classical tradition by the philosopher Seneca and studied Greek, philosophy and rhetoric.Īfter Ahenobarbus died in 48 A.D., Agrippina married her uncle, the emperor Claudius. Nero was born as Lucius Domitius Ahenobarbus, the son of Gnaeus Domitius Ahenobarbus and Agrippina, who was the great-granddaughter of the emperor Augustus. In 68, he committed suicide when the empire revolted. He began executing opponents and Christians. He spent lavishly and behaved inappropriately. Nero took the throne at 17, rebuffed his mother’s attempts to control him, and had her killed. After his father’s death, his mother married his great uncle, Claudius, and persuaded him to name Nero his successor. Nero was born in 37 A.D., the nephew of the emperor.

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