User:StarTrekker/sandbox/project 216


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The mother of Marcus Agrippa

Research
While her husband Lucius status as a first generation citizen can be deduced due to their son Marcus' filiation, her own background can not be presumed beyond that she must have been a citizen as well, as only citizens had the right to conubium (full marriage resulting in legitimate children).

Many historians assume that Marcus, due to his youthful friendship with Gaius Octavius (later Augustus), must have also been born in Rome, but this is not undisputed and ancient historians do not give an exact birthplace. It is probable that she like his father was not from the capital but migrated to the city with her family from somewhere else in the Italian Peninsula.

Her pregnancy with Marcus may have been difficult. Several ancient writers such as Gellius, Pliny, Solinus and Servius claim that the name "Agrippa" was given to children born with their feet first, and Pliny also stated that Marcus suffered from some illness in his youth. Rudolf Daniel has interpeted this to possibly indicate that Marcus suffered some birth defect. Due to the hightened risks of a breech birth it is possible she did not survive, but the fact that her descendant Agrippina mirrored Marcus birth with the birth of her own son Nero might indicate that this was not the case.

Marcus is known to have had at least one older brother, Lucius Vipsanius, and a sister Vipsania Polla. Historians are not sure if Polla was older or younger than Marcus. Neither sibling is refered to as a half-sibling in ancient sources.

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The 1st-century poet Marcus Manilius may mention her in a line speaking about Agrippa, but the exact wording of this segment of the text is disputed. Depending on the amendation the text may imply that Agrippa was a soldier since being born from his mother, that he was taken from his mother's arms, that he became victorious due to virtue, or that Agrippa would be the architect of his own fortune. Those who interpet the text to mention his mother sometimes belive that the mother being described is likened to the city of Rome itself (Roma), Italy (Italia) or Venus (godess of fertility, fortune and victory). Manilius also appears to include Agrippa among the Julii as descendant of Venus. But Roddaz believes this is meant to reflect Marcus status as a co-founder of the Julio-Claudian dynasty not to link Agrippa's mother to Venus.

F. A. Wright argued in his book ___ that Agrippa was Julius Caesar's illegitimate son and his mother one of his mistress, and that this explained why Agrippa was educated with Caesar's heir. This speculation has been widely rejected as baseless by other scholars.