Agrippina the Younger, in Her Own Words?
Agrippina the Younger speaks more than any other woman in Tacitus’ Annals. She was also an author in her own right, and Tacitus boasts about using her commentarii as a source. How much did her words influence Tacitus? This talk considers Agrippina’s speech acts in the Annals as sound bites that both contribute to Agrippina’s overarching characterization and raise questions about her distinct female rhetoric. Placing Agrippina in conversation with other female speakers suggests that Tacitus has created a rhetoric for women that pushes boundaries of gender and genre. The conclusions return to Agrippina’s commentarii and their importance as a source for Tacitus’ representation of her life and the misfortunes of her family.