ABSTRACT
Making a break with the death of Messallina, as Tacitus does, should not tempt writer or reader into exaggerating the differences between the beginning of Claudius' reign and its end. Politicians and historians had their reasons for portraying the two imperial wives in contrasting styles, during the Emperor's lifetime and after; so did Tacitus, for his literary purpose. Messallina's career lacked the dramatic ups and downs that Agrippina's had already had when she married for the last time; it must not take from that drama. 1
Yet something corresponded to this scheme: Messallina had been carried to power by her husband's destiny; Agrippina made her own way by marrying him. Agrippina's behaviour was more overtly 'political', even if we acknowledge that the deaths that took place between 41 and 48 were not due to Messallina's frustrated lust but were part of the imperial couple's precautions against rival claimants. Messallina's father had not reached the consulship; Agrippina's was a commander posthumously compared with Alexander the Great. Her mother's character and public role were even more impressive: she had been a personality in the Rhine camp, making a dramatic exit felt by the mutineers in 14 and standing guard over the Rhine bridge when hope for the survival of the expeditionary force of 15 was beginning to fade. Agrippina's expectations of acknowledged power, which she first tasted in Gaius' reign, were greater than Messallina's, even if she too still had to wield it vicariously in part, through her husband and later her son Nero. 2
Claudius needed support. Hence his new marriage and his choice of a wife. In the barracks he had shamefacedly told the Guard to kill him if he ever remarried; political considerations soon prevailed and the marriage to Agrippina was celebrated within three months, perhaps on r January, 49. The Emperor's sexual needs are not relevant, as women in plenty were available, although the thirty-three year old Agrippina's seductive behaviour
is graphically presented by Tacitus. The determination of leading freedmen to provide Claudius with a spouse who would acknowledge her debts is also conspicuous. Lobbying, even the round-table discussion of candidates' merits, may be admitted; but the choice was not in doubt. Adia Paetina, presented as Narcissus' candidate, had only the negative merit of inoffensiveness: Claudius had been married to her before and she would introduce no new element into the imperial house; but something new was what the house needed. Her supporters may have hoped to bring the husband of Paetina's daughter Antonia to the throne along with Britannicus; but Faustus Sulla was the half-brother of Messallina and in 48 that told against him, however lacking in energy he was. Callistus is said to have favoured Lollia Paullina, a woman of enormous wealth who was also worth consideration because she had once briefly been married to Gaius. But Agrippina was the last surviving daughter of the beloved Germanicus and his martyred wife, descended from Augustus, and the victim (it might be claimed) of several political vicissitudes already. By marrying her, Claudius could both right old wrongs and immeasurably reinforce his political position-'
The legal snag that Agrippina was Claudius' brother's daughter was quite outweighed by the redoubled political support that the union would bring. Vitellius prepared the ground in the senate, the prohibition was removed, and the marriage was urged on the Emperor by senate and people.4
