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Books on the Julio-Claudians are located in the CBL at 937.06
Claudius, Nero, Tiberius and Agrippina are located in the CBL at 937.07
Agrippina The Younger by
"Agrippina the Younger" has been written with the New South Wales HSC Ancient History Examination in mind. It strictly follows the outline of the HSC syllabus. However, the format, detail and historiography it contains make this book an ideal companion for students in other states and overseas who are studying Agrippina the Younger during this period!
The value of this book lies in:
- its solid, relevant narrative detail
- its inclusion of the views of several of the top historians who have written on aspects of this topic
- its revision exercises
and, perhaps, most usefully, its advice on how to write examination responses
Agrippina: Mother of Nero by
In this dynamic new biography - the first on Agrippina in English - Professor Barrett uses the latest archaeological, numismatic and historical evidence to provide a close and detailed study of her life and career. He shows how Agrippina's political contribution to her time seems in fact to have been positive, and that when she is judged by her achievements she demands admiration. Revealing the true figure behind the propaganda and the political machinations of which she was capable, he assesses the impact of her marriage to the emperor Claudius, on the country and her family. Finally, he exposed her one real failing - her relationship with her son, the monster of her own making to whom, in horrific and violent circumstances, she would eventually fall victim.
Agrippina by
Agrippina the Younger attained a level of power in first-century Rome unprecedented for a woman. According to ancient sources, she achieved her success by plotting against her brother, the emperor Caligula, murdering her husband, the emperor Claudius, and controlling her son, the emperor Nero, by sleeping with him. Modern scholars tend to accept this verdict. But in his dynamic biography--the first on Agrippina in English--Anthony Barrett paints a startling new picture of this influential woman. Drawing on the latest archaeological, numismatic, and historical evidence, Barrett argues that Agrippina has been misjudged. Although she was ambitious, says Barrett, she made her way through ability and determination rather than by sexual allure, and her political contributions to her time seem to have been positive. After Agrippina's marriage to Claudius there was a marked decline in the number of judicial executions and there was close cooperation between the Senate and the emperor; the settlement of Cologne, founded under her aegis, was a model of social harmony; and the first five years of Nero's reign, while she was still alive, were the most enlightened of his rule. According to Barrett, Agrippina's one real failing was her relationship with her son, the monster of her own making who had her murdered in horrific and violent circumstances. Agrippina's impact was so lasting, however, that for some 150 years after her death no woman in the imperial family dared assume an assertive political role.
Representing Agrippina by
Agrippina the Younger, wife of the emperor Claudius and mother of his successor Nero, wielded power and authority at the center of the Roman empire in ways unmatched by almost any other woman in Roman history. Such, at least, is the portrait of Agrippina delivered by our sources andperpetuated in modern scholarship. In this posthumous work, Judith Ginsburg provides a fresh look at both the literary and material representations of Agrippina. Unlike previous treatments, she seeks neither to condemn nor to rehabilitate Agrippina. Nor does she endeavor to exhume the "realAgrippina" from the embellished or fabricated portraits found among the ancients. Ginsburg trains her focus on the representations themselves. Her painstaking dissection of the portrayals by historians exposes the rhetorical tropes, the recurrent motifs, and the craft that shaped the literary imageof Agrippina. The designs, as Ginsburg shows, were more than literary flourishes. They aimed to blur the boundaries between the domestic and the imperial realms, deploying the image of Agrippina as domineering wife and mother to suggest the flaws and instability of the regime, a dysfunctional familyentailing a dysfunctional system of governance. Gender inversions at home played themselves out on the public scene as imperial rule compromised by female ascendancy. Distorted stereotypes of the "wicked stepmother," the domineering woman, and the sexual transgessor were applied to underscore theviolations of status and disruption of gender relations that characterized the imperial administration. Ginsburg has as keen an eye for visual (mis)representations as for literary ones. The depictions of Agrippina on coinage and statuary provide a stark contrast with the written evidence. Sheappears as matron and priestess, emblematic of domestic rectitude and public piety, and a central figure in the continuity of the dynasty. Ginsburg incisively demonstrates the means whereby Agrippina's imagery was molded both to serve the interests of the Julio-Claudian regime and to advance theends of its critics.
The Ancient World Transformed by
CONTENTS
PART 1 - ANCIENT SOCIETIES
Egypt
Chapter 1: Society in New Kingdom Egypt
Greece
Chapter 2: The Bronze Age - society in Minoan Crete
Chapter 3: Spartan society to the Battle of Leuctra 271 BC
PART 2 - PERSONALITIES IN THEIR TIMES
Egypt
Chapter 4: Hatshepsut
Chapter 5: Akhenaten
Greece
Chapter 6: Alexander the Great
Rome
Chapter 7: Julius Caesar
Chapter 8: Agrippina the Younger
PART 3 - HISTORICAL PERIODS
Egypt
Chapter 9: New Kingdom Egypt to the death of
Thutmose IV
Greece
Chapter 10: The Greek world 500-440 BC
Rome
Chapter 11: The Augustan Age 44 BC - AD 14
Chapter 12: The Julio-Claudians and the Roman Empire AD 14-69
I, Claudius by
From the Autobiography of Tiberius Claudius, Born 10 B.C., Murdered and Deified A.D. 54.
Set in the first century A.D. in Rome and written as an autobiographical memoir, this colorful story of the life of the Roman emperor Claudius stands as one of the modern classics of historical fiction.
Physically weak and afflicted with stuttering, Claudius is initially despised and dismissed as an idiot. Shunted to the background of imperial affairs by his embarrassed royal family, he becomes a scholar and historian, while palace intrigues and murders surround him. Observing these dramas from beyond the public eye, Claudius escapes the cruelties inflicted on the rest of the royal family by its own members and survives to become emperor of Rome in A.D. 41.
HSC Ancient History Part 3: Personalities in their times - Rome - Agrippina the Younger This website by Dux College is set out according to the HSC syllabus.
Timeline - Agrippina Minor Published by Livius, this is a timeline of Agrippina's life.
Image: BBC
'Julian Claudian Family Tree' by Rursus available at http://www.ancient.eu/image/2131/ under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0.