Agrippina the Younger

Agrippina the Younger (c. ad 15-59), daughter of the Roman general Germanicus Caesar and Agrippina the Elder, born in Oppidum Ubiorum, a Roman outpost on the River Rhine. The outpost was later named Colonia Agrippinensis (now Cologne) after her. She was thrice married. Her first husband was the father of her son Lucius, better known as the emperor Nero; she is said to have poisoned her second husband. In ad 49 her uncle, Emperor Claudius I, became her third husband; he adopted Nero as his son and heir. In ad 54 Claudius was poisoned, almost certainly by Agrippina, who thus paved the way for Nero to become emperor. She attempted to rule through her son, but when she opposed his marriage to his second wife Poppaea Sabina, Agrippina was killed on his orders.