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AGRIPPA, MARCUS VIPSANIUS

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Originally appearing in Volume V01, Page 426 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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AGRIPPA, See also:MARCUS VIPSANIUS •(63—12 B.c.), See also:Roman states-See also:man and See also:general, son-in-See also:law and See also:minister of the See also:emperor See also:Augustus, was of humble origin. He was of the same See also:age as Octavian (as the emperor was then called), and was studying with him at See also:Apollonia when See also:news of See also:Julius See also:Caesar's. assassination (44) arrived. By his See also:advice Octavian at once set out for See also:Rome. Agrippa played a conspicuous See also:part in the See also:war against See also:Lucius, See also:brother of See also:Mark Antony, which ended in the See also:capture of Perusia (40). Two years later he put down a rising of the Aquitanians in See also:Gaul, and crossed the See also:Rhine to punish the aggressions of the Germans. On his return he refused a See also:triumph but accepted the consulship (39). At this See also:time Sextus Pompeius, with whom war was imminent, had command of the See also:sea on the coasts of See also:Italy. Agrippa's first care was to provide a safe See also:harbour for his See also:ships, which he accomplished by cutting through the strips of See also:land which separated the Lacus Lucrinus from the sea, thus forming an See also:outer harbour; an inner one was also made by joining the See also:lake See also:Avernus to the Lucrinus (Dio See also:Cassius xlviii. 49 ; See also:Pliny, Nat. Hist. See also:xxxvi. 24). About this time Agrippa married Pomponia, daughter of See also:Cicero's friend See also:Pomponius See also:Atticus.

Having been appointed See also:

naval See also:commander-in-See also:chief he put his crews through a course of training, until he See also:felt in a position to meet the See also:fleet of Pompeius. In 36 he was victorious at Mylae and Naulochus, and received the See also:honour of a naval See also:crown for his services. In 33 he was chosen See also:aedile and signalized his See also:tenure of See also:office by effecting See also:great improvements in the See also:city of Rome, restoring and See also:building aqueducts, enlarging and cleansing the sewers, and constructing See also:baths and porticos, and laying out gardens, He also first gave a stimulus to the public See also:exhibition of See also:works of See also:art. The emperor's boast that he had found the city of See also:brick but See also:left it of See also:marble ("marmoream se relinquere, quam latericiam accepisset," See also:Suet. Aug. 29) might with greater propriety have been uttered by Agrippa. He was again called away to take command of the fleet when the war with Antony See also:broke out. The victory at See also:Actium (31), which gave the mastery of Rome and the See also:empire of the See also:world to Octavian, was mainly due to Agrippa. As a token of See also:signal regard Octavian bestowed upon him the See also:hand of his niece Marcella (28). We must suppose that his wife Pomponia was either dead or divorced. In 27 Agrippa was See also:consul for the third time, and in the following See also:year the See also:senate bestowed upon Octavian the emperial See also:title of Augustus. Probably in See also:commemoration of the See also:battle of Actium, Agrippa built and dedicated the Pantheum still in existence as La Rotonda.

The inscription on the See also:

portico states that it was erected by him during his third consulship. His friendship with Augustus seems to have been clouded by the See also:jealousy of his See also:father-in-law See also:Marcellus, which was probably fomented by the intrigues of Livia, the second wife of Augustus, who feared his See also:influence with her See also:husband. The result was that Agrippa left Rome, ostensibly to take over the See also:governor-See also:ship of Syria—a sort of See also:honourable See also:exile; but as a See also:matter of fact he only sent his See also:legate to the See also:East, while he himself remained at See also:Lesbos. On the See also:death of Marcellus, which took See also:place within a year, he was recalled to Rome by Augustus, who found he could not dispense with his services. It is said that by the advice of See also:Maecenas he resolved to attach Agrippa still more closely to him by making him his son-in-law. He accordingly induced him to See also:divorce Marcella and marry his daughter Julia (21), the widow of Marcellus, equally celebrated for her beauty and abilities and her shameless profligacy. In 19 Agrippa was employed in putting down a rising of the Cantabrians in See also:Spain. He was appointed governor of See also:Syria a second time (17), where his just, and prudent See also:administration won him the respect and See also:good-will of the provincials, especially the See also:Hebrew See also:population. His last public service was the bloodless suppression of an insurrection in See also:Pannonia (13). He died at See also:Campania in See also:March of the year following his fifty-first year. Augustus honoured his memory by a magnificent funeral. Agrippa was also known as a writer, especially on See also:geography.

Under his supervision Julius Caesar's See also:

design of having a See also:complete survey of the empire made was carried out. From the materials at hand he constructed a circular See also:chart, which was engraved on marble by Augustus and afterwards placed in the See also:colonnade built by his See also:sister Polla. Amongst his writings an autobiography, now lost, is referred to. Agrippa left several See also:children; by Pomponia, a daughter Vipsania, who became the wife of the emperor Tiberius; by Julia three sons, See also:Gaius and Lucius Caesar and Agrippa Postumus, and two daughters, See also:Agrippina the See also:elder, afterwards the wife of Germanicus, and Julia, who married Lucius See also:Aemilius Paullus. See Dio Cassius xlix.-liv.; Suetonius, Augustus; Velleius Paterculus ii.; See also:Josephus, Antiq. See also:Jud. xv. Io, xvi. 2; Turnbull, Three See also:Dissertations, one of thecharacters of See also:Horace, Augustus and Agrippa (174o); Frandsen, Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa (1836); Motte, Etude sur Marcus Agrippa (1872); Nispi-Landi, Marcus Agrippa e i suoi tempi (19oI); D. Detlefsen, Ursprung, Einrichtung and Bedeutung der Erdkarte Agrippas (1906); V. Gardthausen, Augustus and See also:seine Zest, vol. i. 762 See also:foil., ii. 432 foil.

End of Article: AGRIPPA, MARCUS VIPSANIUS

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