Julia Agrippina, better known as Agrippina the Younger, who lived from 15 to 59 AD, was one of the most prominent women in the Roman History due to her prestigious family lineage within the Julio-Claudian dynasty, and is considered as the first true empress of Ancient Rome. She was the great-granddaughter of Augustus, also known as Octavian, the founder of the Roman Empire, and the daughter of the Roman general Germanicus and Agrippina the Elder.

In addition, she was also the sister of Emperor Caligula, the overbearing and murderous wife of Emperor Claudius, and the tyrannical mother of the infamous Emperor Nero. For her royal connection, she was bestowed the title of Augusta, and became both an empress and a co-regent in her own right. Described as a beautiful and reputable woman, she was a force to be reckoned with, but her life was plagued by controversy and she would die in a scandalous manner as well. According to ancient chroniclers, she was a regicide, a perennial poisoner, a murderer, an incestuous, a seductress, and a detestable profligate.

After her thirteenth birthday in AD 28, Emperor Tiberius arranged for Agrippina to marry her much older paternal first cousin Gnaeus Domitius Ahenobarbus Gaius, a prominent member of the imperial Julio-Claudian dynasty of Ancient Rome, and she had a son with him, who later became infamous as the notorious Emperor Nero.

It is maintained by many that during her married life with Gnaeus Domitius, Agrippina was involved in an incestuous sexual relationship with her brother, Emperor Caligula, along with Agrippina's younger sister, Julia Drusilla. However, in 39 AD, Caligula exiled her to the Ponza, in Pontine Islands, an archipelago of small volcanic islands about 70 miles away from Rome, for allegedly involved in a failed plot to murder him, although she was allowed to return Rome two years later.

Nevertheless, soon after the death of her first husband of oedema, Agrippina married her second husband, Gaius Sallustius Crispus Passienus in 41 AD, only to be accused of fatally poisoning him eight years later, in 49 AD. In the same year, Agrippina married her uncle, Emperor Claudius, motivated solely by her desire for power and an unwavering dedication to secure her son Nero's rise to power.

Within a year of the marriage, she induced Claudius to adopt Nero as the heir to the throne in place of his own son, cementing her role as a unique and influential figure in the male-dominated political history of ancient Rome. According to ancient sources, Agrippina was an aggressive temptress, and she used her alluring grace to seduce Claudius and fulfil her intention, manipulating his weakness for women. However, the decision of Claudius to agree the proposal of Agrippina proved to be a fatal move for him, as he died in AD 54 under suspicious circumstances, potentially poisoned by Agrippina herself. She certainly benefited after his death, as it led to Nero, then roughly 16 or 17 years old, assuming power, with Julia Agrippina as regent.

From her early adulthood, Agrippina made strategic moves to fulfil her burning ambition to secure power. Her story is an insightful example of both the opportunities and constraints faced by a woman of imperial lineage in ancient Rome, which is much more than just intriguing anecdotes of poisonings and her intimate affairs. She often embraced a more impudent, rather unabashed form of criminality, motivated solely by her desire for power, but always with her son's future in mind. It is said that although some astrologers predicted that Nero would eventually kill her, she famously stated that she does not care to be murdered, provided he rules. Nevertheless, her rise to prominence ended in violence, reflecting both her triumphs and ultimate failure to defeat the dangers of navigating a male-dominated political scene of ancient Rome.

During the early days of Nero’s reign, Agrippina the Younger served for a time as his co-regent, an honour which never before bestowed on a woman and according to the historians, she deserves credit for effective governance, particularly during the later years of Emperor Claudius's reign and the early years of Nero's rule. However, contrary to her expectations, Agrippina could not end up exerting more influence over her son despite her best efforts, and although she tried to rule on behalf of him, events did not turn out as she had expected. Her increasingly strained relationship with Nero probably reached its peak when she objected to his relationship with an ex-slave girl, followed by his unethical romancing with his friend’s wife, Poppaea Sabina, who finally divorced her husband and became Nero’s mistress. Although it may seem strange, there was a time when Agrippina even challenged his right to rule, arguing that her stepson Brittanicus was the real heir to the throne. Consequently, Brittanicus, son of Claudius with his third wife Valeria Messalina, later died in mysterious circumstances, likely orchestrated by Nero. In addition to that, Nero also exiled his mother to the Pontian Islands, as he considered his mother overbearing. However, despite of her isolation, Nero was feeling unsafe and was scared of his mother, as she was still popular and was supported by the fiercely loyal Praetorian Guard and could raise an armed insurrection. He, therefore, had to hatch a plan to kill his mother, which would look like an accident. After a failed attempt to poison her, he arranged for her to board a boat, which was designed to sink. As luck would have it, that plan also failed, as Agrippina managed to swim safely back to the shore. Nevertheless, by that time, Nero became determined to commit matricide, and ordered his mother to be assassinated in her country house.

Throughout her life, Agrippina dared to venture beyond the traditional roles for women in ancient Rome, and exercised considerable influence and power in Roman political life. However, her brief period of power came with a harsh price, as she was ultimately humiliated and killed by order of her son, Nero. Although many male historians have downplayed her significance, the impact of her actions was profound in history, and forty years after her death, a statue of Agrippina was erected by Emperor Trajan in his new forum.