Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa

Agrippa was born around 63 BC,[1][4] in an uncertain location.[2] His father was called Lucius Vipsanius.[5] His mother's name is not known and Pliny the Elder claimed that his cognomen "Agrippa" derived from him having been born breech[6] so it is possible that she died in childbirth.[7] Pliny also stated that he suffered from lameness as a child.[8] He had an elder brother whose name was also Lucius Vipsanius, and a sister named Vipsania Polla. His family originated in the Italian countryside, and was of humble and plebeian origins. They had not been prominent in Roman public life.[9] According to some scholars, including Victor Gardthausen, R. E. A. Palmer, and David Ridgway, Agrippa's family was originally from Pisa in Etruria.[10][11]

Agrippa was the same age as Octavian (the future emperor Augustus), and the two were educated together and became close friends. Despite Agrippa's association with the family of Julius Caesar, his elder brother chose another side in the civil wars of the 40s BC, fighting under Cato against Caesar in Africa. When Cato's forces were defeated, Agrippa's brother was taken prisoner but freed after Octavian interceded on his behalf.[12]

It is not known whether Agrippa fought against his brother in Africa, but he probably served in Caesar's campaign of 46 to 45 BC against Gnaeus Pompeius, which culminated in the Battle of Munda.[13] Caesar regarded him highly enough to send him with Octavius in 45 BC to study in Apollonia (on the Illyrian coast) with the Macedonian legions, while Caesar consolidated his power in Rome.[14] In the fourth month of their stay in Apollonia the news of Julius Caesar's assassination in March 44 BC reached them. Agrippa and another friend, Quintus Salvidienus Rufus, advised Octavius to march on Rome with the troops from Macedonia, but Octavius decided to sail to Italy with a small retinue. After his arrival, he learned that Caesar had adopted him as his legal heir.[15] Octavius at this time took Caesar's name, but modern historians refer to him as "Octavian" during this period.

After Octavian's return to Rome, he and his supporters realised they needed the support of legions. Agrippa helped Octavian to levy troops in Campania.[16] Once Octavian had his legions, he made a pact with Mark Antony and Lepidus, legally established in 43 BC as the Second Triumvirate. Octavian and his consular colleague Quintus Pedius arranged for Caesar's assassins to be prosecuted in their absence, and Agrippa was entrusted with the case against Gaius Cassius Longinus.[17] It may have been in the same year that Agrippa began his political career, holding the position of tribune of the plebs, which granted him entry to the Senate.[18]

In 42 BC, Agrippa probably fought alongside Octavian and Antony in the Battle of Philippi.[19] After their return to Rome, he played a major role in Octavian's war against Lucius Antonius and Fulvia, respectively the brother and wife of Mark Antony, which began in 41 BC and ended in the capture of Perusia in 40 BC. However, Salvidienus remained Octavian's main general at this time.[20] After the Perusine war, Octavian departed for Gaul, leaving Agrippa as urban praetor in Rome with instructions to defend Italy against Sextus Pompeius, an opponent of the Triumvirate who was now occupying Sicily. In July 40 BC, while Agrippa was occupied with the Ludi Apollinares that were the praetor's responsibility, Sextus began a raid in southern Italy. Agrippa advanced on him, forcing him to withdraw.[21] However, the Triumvirate proved unstable, and in August 40 BC both Sextus and Antony invaded Italy (but not in an organized alliance). Agrippa's success in retaking Sipontum from Antony helped bring an end to the conflict.[22] Agrippa was among the intermediaries through whom Antony and Octavian agreed once more upon peace. During the discussions Octavian learned that Salvidienus had offered to betray him to Antony, with the result that Salvidienus was prosecuted and either executed or committed suicide. Agrippa was now Octavian's leading general.[23]

Bust of Agrippa, Pushkin Museum

In 39 or 38 BC, Octavian appointed Agrippa governor of Transalpine Gaul, where in 38 BC he put down a rising of the Aquitanians. He also fought the Germanic tribes, becoming the next Roman general to cross the Rhine after Julius Caesar.[24] He was summoned back to Rome by Octavian to assume the consulship for 37 BC. He was well below the usual minimum age of 43, but Octavian had suffered a humiliating naval defeat against Sextus Pompey and needed his friend to oversee the preparations for further warfare. Agrippa refused the offer of a triumph for his exploits in Gaul – on the grounds, says Dio, that he thought it improper to celebrate during a time of trouble for Octavian.[25]

Since Sextus Pompeius had command of the sea on the coasts of Italy, Agrippa's first care was to provide a safe harbour for Octavian's ships. He accomplished this by cutting through the strips of land which separated the Lacus Lucrinus from the sea, thus forming an outer harbour, while joining the lake Avernus to the Lucrinus to serve as an inner harbor.[26] The new harbor-complex was named Portus Julius in Octavian's honour.[27] Agrippa was also responsible for technological improvements, including larger ships and an improved form of grappling hook.[28] About this time, he married Caecilia Pomponia Attica, daughter of Cicero's friend Titus Pomponius Atticus.[29]

In 36 BC, Octavian and Agrippa set sail against Sextus. The fleet was badly damaged by storms and had to withdraw; Agrippa was left in charge of the second attempt. Thanks to superior technology and training, Agrippa and his men won decisive victories at Mylae and Naulochus, destroying all but seventeen of Sextus' ships and compelling most of his forces to surrender. Octavian, with his power increased, forced the triumvir Lepidus into retirement and entered Rome in triumph.[30] Agrippa received the unprecedented honour of a corona navalis decorated with the beaks of ships; as Dio remarks, this was "a decoration given to nobody before or since".[31]

Agrippa was again called away to take command of the fleet when the war with Antony and Cleopatra broke out. He captured the strategically important city of Methone at the southwest of the Peloponnese, then sailed north, raiding the Greek coast and capturing Corcyra (modern Corfu). Octavian then brought his forces to Corcyra, occupying it as a naval base.[36] Antony drew up his ships and troops at Actium, where Octavian moved to meet him. Agrippa meanwhile defeated Antony's supporter Quintus Nasidius in a naval battle at Patrae.[37] Dio relates that as Agrippa moved to join Octavian near Actium, he encountered Gaius Sosius, one of Antony's lieutenants, who was making a surprise attack on the squadron of Lucius Tarius, a supporter of Octavian. Agrippa's unexpected arrival turned the battle around.[38]

As the decisive battle approached, according to Dio, Octavian received intelligence that Antony and Cleopatra planned to break past his naval blockade and escape. At first he wished to allow the flagships past, arguing that he could overtake them with his lighter vessels and that the other opposing ships would surrender when they saw their leaders' cowardice. Agrippa objected, saying that Antony's ships, although larger, could outrun Octavian's if they hoisted sails, and that Octavian ought to fight now because Antony's fleet had just been struck by storms. Octavian followed his friend's advice.[39]

On 2 September 31 BC, the Battle of Actium was fought. Octavian's victory, which gave him the mastery of Rome and the empire, was mainly due to Agrippa.[40] Octavian then bestowed upon him the hand of his niece Claudia Marcella Major in 28 BC. He also served a second consulship with Octavian the same year.[41] In 27 BC, Agrippa held a third consulship with Octavian,[41] and in that year, the Senate also bestowed upon Octavian the imperial title of Augustus.

In commemoration of the Battle of Actium, Agrippa built and dedicated the building that served as the Roman Pantheon before its destruction in AD 80. Emperor Hadrian used Agrippa's design to build his own Pantheon, which survives in Rome. The inscription of the later building, which was built around 125, preserves the text of the inscription from Agrippa's building during his third consulship. The years following his third consulship, Agrippa spent in Gaul, reforming the provincial administration and taxation system, along with building an effective road system and aqueducts.

Agrippa's last public service was his beginning of the conquest of the upper Danube River region, which would become the Roman province of Pannonia in 13 BC.[50] He died at Campania in 12 BC at the age of 50–51. His posthumous son, Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa Postumus, was named in his honor. Augustus honoured his memory by a magnificent funeral and spent over a month in mourning. Augustus personally oversaw all of Agrippa's children's educations. Although Agrippa had built a tomb for himself, Augustus had Agrippa's remains placed in his own mausoleum.[51]

Agrippa had several children through his three marriages:

• By his first wife, Caecilia Attica, he had one or probably two daughters, Vipsania Agrippina Major who married Quintus Haterius and Vipsania Agrippina Minor, who married the future emperor Tiberius.
• By his second wife, Claudia Marcella Major, Agrippa probably had one or two daughters named Vipsania Marcella.[54] One of them likely married Publius Quinctilius Varus and the other likely married Marcus Aemilius Lepidus.
• By his third wife, Julia the Elder (daughter of Augustus), he had five children: Gaius Caesar, Julia the Younger, Lucius Caesar, Agrippina the Elder (wife of Germanicus, mother of the Emperor Caligula and Empress Agrippina the Younger), and Agrippa Postumus (a posthumous son).

Through his numerous children, Agrippa would become ancestor to many subsequent members of the Julio-Claudian dynasty, whose position he helped to attain, as well as many other distinguished Romans.

• Agrippa is a character in William Shakespeare's play Antony and Cleopatra.
• A fictional version of Agrippa in his later life played a prominent role in the 1976 BBC Television series I, Claudius. Agrippa was portrayed as a much older man though he would have been only 39 years old at the time of the first episode (24/23 BC). He was played by John Paul.
• Agrippa is the main character in Paul Naschy's 1980 film Los cántabros, played by Naschy himself. It is a highly fictionalized version of the Cantabrian Wars in which Agrippa is depicted as the lover of the sister of Cantabrian leader Corocotta.
• Agrippa appears in several film versions of the life of Cleopatra. He is normally portrayed as an old man, rather than a young one. Among the actors to portray him are Philip Locke, Alan Rowe, and Andrew Keir, as well as Francis de Wolff in the 1964 film Carry on Cleo.
• Agrippa is also one of the principal characters in the British/Italian joint project Imperium: Augustus (2003) featuring flashbacks between Augustus and Julia about Agrippa, which shows him in his youth on serving in Caesar's army up until his victory at Actium and the defeat of Cleopatra. He is portrayed by Ken Duken. In the 2005 series Empire the young Agrippa (played by Christopher Egan) becomes Octavian's sidekick after saving him from an attempted poisoning.
• Marcus Agrippa, a highly fictional character based on Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa's early life, is part of the BBC-HBO-RAI television series Rome. He is played by Allen Leech. He describes himself as the grandson of a slave. The series creates a romantic relationship between Agrippa and Octavian's sister Octavia Minor, for which there is no historical evidence.
• In the TV series Domina (2021), Agrippa was played by Oliver Huntingdon and Ben Batt.

• Agrippa is mentioned by name in book VIII of Virgil's The Aeneid, where Aeneas sees an image of Agrippa leading ships in the Battle of Actium on the shield forged for him by Vulcan and given to him by his mother, Venus.[55]

• Agrippa is a main character in the early part of Robert Graves' novel I, Claudius.
• He is a main character in the later two novels of Colleen McCullough's Masters of Rome series.
• He is a featured character of prominence and importance in the historical fiction novel Cleopatra's Daughter by Michelle Moran.
• He also features prominently in John Edward Williams' historical novel Augustus.
• In the backstory of Gunpowder Empire, the first volume in Harry Turtledove's Crosstime Traffic alternate history series, Agrippa lived until AD 26, conquering all of Germania for the Empire and becoming the second Emperor when Augustus died in AD 14.