Agrippina the Elder

Agrippina the Elder (c. 13 bc-ad 33), daughter of the Roman general and statesman Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa and Julia, daughter of Emperor Augustus. Agrippina was one of the most virtuous and heroic women of antiquity. She married the Roman general Germanicus Caesar and had nine children, the most famous of whom were Agrippina the Younger and Gaius Caesar, later to become Emperor Caligula. Agrippina accompanied Germanicus on many of his military expeditions. After his death in ad 19, Emperor Tiberius apparently grew suspicious of Agrippina, whose sons were possible successors to the throne. In ad 30, at the instigation of his minister Lucius Aelius Sejanus, Tiberius banished her to the island of Pandateria (now Ventotene), near Naples, where she starved herself to death three years later.