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I havent scored well on my previous assessments other than essays so im doing practice questions, can anyone give me advice on this 10 mark response for agrippina please.
1. Describe Agrippina’s relationship with Nero (10 marks)
Nero’s relationship with his keen, power hungry yet intelligent and commanding mother was both the cause of Agrippina's rise to power, and the very thing that caused her downfall. Born to Agrippina as the son of her first husband, Gnaeus Domitius Ahenobarbus, originally named Lucius Domitius Ahenobarbus, he was Agrippina’s only child. This, of course, meant her attention was on him and his future only. One could say she would be her only shot at further power, as ensuring his succession, which she was arguably obsessed with, would cement her in the ultimate position of power for a woman in Ancient Rome. His succession was possible through Agrippina’s machinations, she was said to have “manipulated” Claudius, infamously uxorious as Tactitus describes him, into adopting Nero over his previous son Britannicus, and then later, allegedly, poisoned him, speeding up the process. Once in power, Nero was initially quite kind to his mother, the keyword he gave to the guards on the day of his succession being “Best of Mothers”, reports Suetonius. He was even said to have turned over all decisions and affairs to her management for the time being, likely a wise decision as he was only 16 at the time of succession. This conceding of power can be inferred through coins produced early into his reign not only depicting Nero and Agrippina on the obverse, at equal height and face to face, with the reverse having Agrippina’s title, often reserved only for the leader that oversaw production of the coins. While in this state of shared power, Agrippina took the liberty of eliminating those she saw as enemies to the throne, such as Marcus Junius Silanus.
However, as Nero grew older, tension seemed to occur between the two, with Nero demoting Pallas, a close supporter of Agrippina since the reign of Claudius, of which historian Barrett remarks it was a sign of “Nero’s determination to distance himself”, and that hsiu removal came as a “blow” to Agrippina. Agrippina began retaliation, openly stating how Britannicus was a more favourable, of age heir, threatening to have the guard instate him, and outright rejecting his growing relationship with freedwoman Claudia Acte, and later Poppaea Sabina. The introduction of Nero’s lovers and possible wives became a threat to Agrippina’s connection to Nero and power through him, and it is believed that Agrippina’s ‘over-watchful’ tendencies are what drove their relationship apart. Following a rumoured attempt at luring her son to bed with her, as Cassius Dio claims, unsure himself whether or not this claim was to be true, Nero grew tired of his mother. After the supporters of Junia Silana convinced him of Agrippina’s plot to marry her lover, Passienus Crispus, he eventually gained the courage to kill her, ending her reign. He was instead talked down by Burrus to allow Agrippina to defend herself, to which she instead spoke out against Junia and her supporters, and they were instead exiled. This, however, did little to assist Nero’s new perception of his mother, and under the ‘mocking and nagging’ of Poppaea Sabina, Tacitus claims, he became emboldened to finally be rid of her, and Tacitus writes she was stabbed, crying out for the them to pierce her womb, the final degree of separation between her and Nero.
1. Describe Agrippina’s relationship with Nero (10 marks)
Nero’s relationship with his keen, power hungry yet intelligent and commanding mother was both the cause of Agrippina's rise to power, and the very thing that caused her downfall. Born to Agrippina as the son of her first husband, Gnaeus Domitius Ahenobarbus, originally named Lucius Domitius Ahenobarbus, he was Agrippina’s only child. This, of course, meant her attention was on him and his future only. One could say she would be her only shot at further power, as ensuring his succession, which she was arguably obsessed with, would cement her in the ultimate position of power for a woman in Ancient Rome. His succession was possible through Agrippina’s machinations, she was said to have “manipulated” Claudius, infamously uxorious as Tactitus describes him, into adopting Nero over his previous son Britannicus, and then later, allegedly, poisoned him, speeding up the process. Once in power, Nero was initially quite kind to his mother, the keyword he gave to the guards on the day of his succession being “Best of Mothers”, reports Suetonius. He was even said to have turned over all decisions and affairs to her management for the time being, likely a wise decision as he was only 16 at the time of succession. This conceding of power can be inferred through coins produced early into his reign not only depicting Nero and Agrippina on the obverse, at equal height and face to face, with the reverse having Agrippina’s title, often reserved only for the leader that oversaw production of the coins. While in this state of shared power, Agrippina took the liberty of eliminating those she saw as enemies to the throne, such as Marcus Junius Silanus.
However, as Nero grew older, tension seemed to occur between the two, with Nero demoting Pallas, a close supporter of Agrippina since the reign of Claudius, of which historian Barrett remarks it was a sign of “Nero’s determination to distance himself”, and that hsiu removal came as a “blow” to Agrippina. Agrippina began retaliation, openly stating how Britannicus was a more favourable, of age heir, threatening to have the guard instate him, and outright rejecting his growing relationship with freedwoman Claudia Acte, and later Poppaea Sabina. The introduction of Nero’s lovers and possible wives became a threat to Agrippina’s connection to Nero and power through him, and it is believed that Agrippina’s ‘over-watchful’ tendencies are what drove their relationship apart. Following a rumoured attempt at luring her son to bed with her, as Cassius Dio claims, unsure himself whether or not this claim was to be true, Nero grew tired of his mother. After the supporters of Junia Silana convinced him of Agrippina’s plot to marry her lover, Passienus Crispus, he eventually gained the courage to kill her, ending her reign. He was instead talked down by Burrus to allow Agrippina to defend herself, to which she instead spoke out against Junia and her supporters, and they were instead exiled. This, however, did little to assist Nero’s new perception of his mother, and under the ‘mocking and nagging’ of Poppaea Sabina, Tacitus claims, he became emboldened to finally be rid of her, and Tacitus writes she was stabbed, crying out for the them to pierce her womb, the final degree of separation between her and Nero.