ABSTRACT
Tiberius’ reign marks the start of a new phase. The change is exemplified by two women, Livia and Agrippina. Livia, greatly enhanced in status after Augustus’ death, claimed from a reluctant son, and to a large extent succeeded in obtaining, a share in the business of government. She did so only in a de facto capacity, though if she had had her way it would have been more than that. Agrippina, a daughter of Julia and Agrippa, and wife of Livia’s grandson, Germanicus, headed a faction, the Paries Agrippinae (Agrippina’s Party), whose purpose was presumably to secure the throne for one of her sons, though it sometimes seems that destabilizing the regime was the principal aim. Agrippina set a new standard for women in public life. Left a widow early in the piece, she stood up to Tiberius and his Eminence Grise, Sejanus, in an unflinching confrontation, relying more on her own birth and determination than on the support of any man-except one. She was the antithesis of the ideal member of the Domus in nearly every way, sharing the loyalty, courage and lack of domestic serenity of Fulvia rather than the more deliberate virtues of Livia. The only quality that she and her step-grandmother1 had in common was the rejection of sex as a political weapon; Agrippina was as noted for her pudicitia as Livia was. But that did not alleviate the state of hostility that dominated relations between the two women, with some remissions, for a large part of the reign.
