Agrippina

Empress, Exile, Hustler, Whore

By: Emma Southon

Narrated by: Imogen Church

Length: 11 hrs and 36 mins

Publisher's summary

Agrippina the Younger held a unique position in the first Roman imperial family. As great niece of Tiberius, sister of Caligula, wife of Claudius and mother of Nero, she stood at the centre of power in the Roman empire for three generations. Even in her own time, she was recognised as a woman of unparalleled power. From exile to being hailed empress, across three marriages and three widowhoods, her life, power and role were extraordinary in their scope and drama. Beautiful and intelligent, she is alternately a ruthless murderer and helpless victim, the most loving mother and the most powerful woman of the Roman empire.

She is portrayed in ancient sources as using sex, motherhood, manipulation and violence to get her way and as single-minded in her pursuit of power for herself and her son. Agrippina’s life sheds light on the Julio-Claudian dynasty and Rome at its height - the chaos, blood and politics of it all - as well as the place of women in the Roman world.

This book follows Agrippina as a daughter born to the expected heir to Augustus’ throne and who was then orphaned; as a sister to Caligula, who raped his sisters and showered them with honours until they attempted rebellion against him and were exiled; as a seductive niece and then wife to Claudius, who gave her access to near unlimited power; and then as a mother to Nero, who adored her until he killed her.

She was 44 when she died. It takes us from the camps of Germany during a mutiny, through senatorial political intrigue, assassination attempts and exile to a small island, to the heights of imperial power, thrones and golden cloaks and games and adoration.

We will see Agrippina found her own city (Cologne), live up to and then flaunt the greatest ideals of Roman femininity and motherhood, and explore the absolute limits of female power in Rome. The biography of Agrippina is also the biography of the first Roman imperial family, the Julio-Claudians, and of the empire itself.

©2020 Emma Southon (P)2020 Audible, Ltd

Don't worry, only one of them makes it out...alive

Narrator, Imogen Church no doubt fulfilled her brief from the author, retaining the tone of the book to perfection - so much so that it was almost impossible to listen. Her reading was crystal clear, inflection impeccable and even the voice itself a pleasant timbre, but her delivery was so sarcastic, sensationalized and patronising, her tone drawn from the text itself, that I began to wonder just who this book was aimed at? Had it not been for the inclusion of so many profanities and epithets attempting to shock, I would have thought it right for pre-teens, a captivating tale of murder, lust and power play to lure in readers who wanted colour in their semi fictionalized version, more tales of the horrible Romans.

The story of an amazing woman at any time ruined by the constant interjection of the author's opinion spoken from her own prejudiced modern day sexist mindset, no different in character from the one she so ardently derides as existing in the society of two thousand years ago.