Page:A Biographical Dictionary of the Celebrated Women of Every Age and Country (1804).djvu/21

Rh her even in her children, and ordered the day of her birth to be numbered amidst the unhappy ones.

born in the city of the Ubii, from her called Colonia Agrippina, at present Cologne, and educated by her grandmother Antonia, who saw, with sorrow, the children of Germanicus contaminated with the most odious and horrible vices. With all the pride and ambition of her mother, Julia Agrippina inherited none of her good qualities; but, unrestrained by any principle, she employed, without shame or remorse, every charm of person, and power of intellect, to the purpose of her own aggrandizement. She was married, first to Domitius Œnobarbus, by whom she was mother of Nero: and, after his death, her irregular conduct was so notorious, that she suffered public penance, and was banished, by her brother Caligula, to the island of Pontia, on a charge of treason. On the succession of Claudius, the sentence was repealed, and she returned to Rome to pursue again her intrigues and cabals. She married, secondly, Crispus Passienus, a patrician of great wealth, which was soon all her own, as he lived but a very short time after their union. One object only now remained for her ambition, the imperial crown; and she accordingly practised so successfully upon the weakness of the emperor, that, though his niece, he married her, and in his name she held the reins of government. Claudius had a son; but Agrippina had one also, that she was determined should succeed him; and, for this purpose she obtained every honour and advantage for Nero, while the other was kept back from any thing that might give him