Marcus Agrippa: Right-hand Man of Caesar Augustus (50 page)

The men who immediately followed Nero – Galba, Otho, Vitellius and Vespasian – were keen to distance themselves from the dynasty of Augustus and his associate. It was the Flavian emperor Titus who finally resurrected the glories of the nation’s Julio-Claudian past in a series of ‘restoration’ coins, which began to appear from 79 or 80 CE. Among these great Romans was Agrippa, highlighting the fact that, even ninety years after his death, the man still had a reputation worth celebrating.
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The engraver of the new coin chose, as his model, the
as
of Augustus’ – or Tiberius’ or Caligula’s – time with the left-facing Agrippa, wearing his combined
corona murata
and
navalis
on the obverse and the image of Neptunus with his trident on the other side, with the addition of an inscription honouring the new emperor.
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He reproduced the same physical features – the stern gaze, the thick eyebrows and the double chin – and even the inscription of the original. It is only on the reverse that the name of Titus is discreetly revealed. His brother Domitian, who succeeded him in 81 CE, continued the issue into his own reign.
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It was in Domitian’s time that the first of many disasters struck Agrippa’s masterpieces. A fire is recorded as destroying part or all of the Pantheon, as well as the
Thermae Agrippae
in 80 CE.
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Work to rebuild them – presumably to the original appearance – was carried out.
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Lightning struck the Pantheon when Trajan was emperor (98–117 CE) and the fire which ensued destroyed the building.
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For several years it stood as a ruin. After 126 CE Trajan’s successor Hadrian (117–138 CE) undertook not only to rebuild but to transform the Pantheon.
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The building with its enormous concrete dome, which still stands, is the building Hadrian – or an unknown architect in his employ – designed (
fig. 14
). Some parts of the old structure, notably the podium, were incorporated into the new construction. Hadrian did not claim credit for the final building but, in keeping with his own policy, acknowledged the original builder and had the great bronze letters with M. Agrippa’s name mounted in the frieze below the pediment. Hadrian held at least one meeting of his court and advisors in his new Pantheon.
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Finishing touches to the building may have been added during his successor’s reign, since a restoration to ‘the Temple of Agrippa’ is mentioned in the
Historia Augusta
biography of Antoninus Pius (138–161 CE).
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Further repairs were carried out by Septimius Severus and his son Caracalla in 202 CE.
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Even in Ammianus Marcellinus’ day it was considered one of the wonders of Rome, and it was visited in person by Constantius II (317–361 CE) in the spring of 357.
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In the intervening years the great open space of the
Campus Martius
became crowded with buildings as the emperors competed to build bigger and better than their predecessors and the needs of a growing metropolis consumed the available free space. Only the northwestern part of the ancient Field of Mars remained open and undeveloped. Even here, however, the line of sight view from the doors of the Pantheon to the Mausoleum of Augustus, which Agrippa had carefully conceived as part of the overall design of his park, became obscured by a colonnaded space built in front of it.

Figure 14. The simple, understated inscription declaring Agrippa as builder of the Pantheon has graced the building for centuries, as recorded by Piranesi for his book on Roman antiquities of 1756.

Under Augustus the
Diribitorium
was finally finished and officially opened.
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In the mid-first century CE Pliny the Elder marvelled at its immense size, listing it beside the
Circus Maximus
built by Iulius Caesar, the Basilica of Paulus, the Forum of Augustus and Vespasian’s Temple of Peace as the greatest buildings in Rome of his day.
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It might even have pushed the limits beyond the Romans’ technical capabilities: repairs had to be made to it in Pliny the Elder’s own lifetime and, writing 150 years later again, Dio reports ‘indeed, now that the whole covering has been destroyed, the edifice is wide open to the sky, since it could not be put back together again’ – a fate which also befell his
odeion
in Athens, the roof of which collapsed in 150 CE.
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The vast colonnaded
Saepta Iulia
erected by Agrippa had since become a popular place for Romans to lounge and dawdle. Once intended for the assembly of Roman voters exercising their democratic rights, it had quickly been turned into an entertainment complex for public spectacles. Before the Flavian Amphitheatre (Colosseum) was built, gladiatorial combats were staged there and the central space was occasionally flooded so it could be transformed into a pool for
naumachiae
, or mock naval battles; bazaars were held on the ground where once ballots were cast.
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Damaged by fires, it was also subject to repairs under Domitian and Hadrian, but it is mentioned as still standing in the third century.
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Agrippa’s great aqueducts continued to bring water into the city long after its status as capital of the Roman world passed to Constantinople. The Emperor Constantine arranged for necessary repairs to be carried out to the structure of the
Aqua Virgo
.
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When Rome was besieged by the Goths in 537 they first broke sections of the aqueduct to cut off the water supply and then attempted to enter the city via its subterranean tunnel.
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The structure is mentioned in documents dating from Late Antiquity to the Middle Ages and is known to have been repaired by Pope Adrian I (772–795).
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Pope Nicholas V (1447–1455) made much-needed repairs and extended it to the Trevi Fountain, which was envisioned in its present form by Italian architect Niccolò Salvi in 1744, but finished eighteen years later by Giuseppe Pannini.
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In a salute to the Roman commissioner of public works, Pannini had Agrippa represented in full military panoply with the spirit of Trivia, the source of the water, in the two allegorical panels (
plates 43
and
44
), which appear between the columns above the statues.

Interest in Agrippa waned over the centuries. He was ‘rediscovered’ during the Age of the Enlightenment. In many ways he was a man made for the Age of Reason: a rational thinker interested in advancing knowledge through the application of science in architecture and military affairs, a promoter of cultural life and a reformer of society. The first modern account of his life appeared in 1717 in Leipzig, Germany as
De M. Agrippa
written in Latin by Georg Christian Gebauer (1690–1773) and Friedrich Wilhelm von Sommersberg (1698–1756).
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Other single-volume accounts appeared infrequently over the next two centuries with the emergence of German nationalism and an eagerness to better understand the ancient world and its lessons for the modern.
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In the twenty-first century his life has been most comprehensively documented by Rudolf Daniel (1933), Meyer Reinhold (1933) and Jean-Michel Roddaz (1984).

Whereas the lives of the Caesars have been biographed and fictionalized in a thousand volumes and in some cases have even become household names, Augustus’ right-hand man has been left largely in the footnotes of popular history. His is not a tale of deception or corruption, but of dutiful service and, thus, is one lacking in the salacious details craved by some. In a rare depiction in art, Agrippa was painted by Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema (1836–1912). The work of the Dutch-born British artist is typically romantic in treatment, composed of fantastic buildings graced by voluptuous, scantily clad nudes. The setting of
An Audience at Agrippa’s
of 1876 (
plate 45
) is, however, the interior of a rather plain building of white marble.
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From a hallway crowded with people Agrippa descends a flight of steps into a formal garden. The figure of the subject emerges from the shadows in his dark red tunic and orange
toga
to be greeted by waiting servants. His expression is pensive but determined. Yet he is dwarfed by the white marble statue of Augustus of Prima Porta in the foreground, which is brightly illuminated by the natural light. Even in his own home, Augustus is ever present. In front of the base of the statue are three figures. A Roman youth in a white toga clutching a scroll covers his mouth discreetly as he whispers something to an old man – perhaps a sage – whose gaze is towards the floor. A young lady stands close by with a silver lamp. What does the young man know that he is keen to keep secret? The artist provides no clues.

Where Agrippa has been represented on stage or television he has been a bit part. He is one of several minor characters in William Shakespeare’s
Antony and Cleopatra
, appearing for the first time in Act II where he proposes, apologetically, a marriage between Antony and Octavia. He concludes with the words:

Yet he is presented as a schemer and an instrument in Octavius’ plan to bring down his adversaries. His language is plainer than Maecenas’ who also appears in the play. By Act III he is despatched to lead his army against Antony and returns with news of victory, then in the final act utters a pithy compliment about the fallen commander.

M. Agrippa was introduced to modern film-goers in the Hollywood epic
Cleopatra
. The British-American-Swiss epic drama film directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz was an adaptation of the book by Carlo Maria Franzero entitled
The Life and Times of Cleopatra
, a work of non-fiction. Agrippa, played by actor Andrew Keir (1926–1997), was introduced first as an admiral under Julius Caesar (Rex Harrison), and later under Octavian, played by Roddie McDowall. The producers decided to present Agrippa as much older man than Octavian, and one sporting a beard – neither facts being true of the historical person. While scenes of the Battle of Actium recreated its high drama, complete with flaming ballista bolts, the producers played fast and loose with the facts. Following Shakespeare, rather than returning to Italy troops, Agrippa was depicted anachronistically as taking part in the final demise of Richard Burton’s Antony and Elizabeth Taylor’s Cleopatra in Egypt. The film – controversial for the antics of its two leading actors during production – was reported to be the highest grossing film of 1963, earning $26 million ($57.7 million in total) at the box office, yet made an overall loss due to its cost of $44 million, making it the only film ever to be the highest grossing film of the year yet not make a profit.
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Agrippa is a central character in the early chapters of the novel
I, Claudius
, a first-person crime story by Robert Graves who created it from a pastiche of Dio, Suetonius and Tacitus with a large dose of poetic licence. In the first episode of Jack Pulman’s 1976 screen adaptation for BBC TV/PBS
Masterpiece Theater
M. Agrippa was played by the noted actor John Paul (1921–1995) as a close but irascible friend feeling sidelined by the up and coming, and much younger, Marcellus. His exclamation ‘I am getting a little tired of being told the arts of war by kids who have only just learned to piss in a pot!’ is a memorable line from the monumental television series. Although the actor at 55 was older than the age of the character he portrayed – who was actually 41 in that part of the story – he conveyed a real sense of a hard working, plain talking, but sentimental friend who wears his feelings on his sleeve. In the more recent BBC/HBO drama
Rome
Agrippa – played by the talented young Irish actor Allen Leech (1981–) – is portrayed as the man who helps Octavius in the uncertain years immediately following Iulius Caesar’s assassination and falls hopelessly in love with his friend’s sister.
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Liberties may have been taken with the history, but as he was in real life, the fictional character of M. Agrippa is never far away from the man he faithfully serves and always ready to do his bidding.

Marcus Agrippa (born M. Vipsanius Agrippa), son of Lucius, was a remarkable man. He embodied the traditional and timeless values of courage, honour and no-nonsense. He deliberately kept his roots obscure during his lifetime. Everyone around him knew his origins were humble – probably plebeian – though that does not mean they were poor, only that they were not from the old Roman nobility. Yet almost as an obsession Agrippa was particularly concerned to disassociate himself from
gens Vipsania
which was his birthright. Why has not come down to us. Perhaps it was some traumatic event – those misfortunes of youth Pliny the Elder alludes to – or the constant reminder that the name of Vipsanius betrayed his father’s humble birth – as Seneca refers to – which changed his outlook.
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Yet he could never quite escape his family’s name. His insistence on being called plain M. Agrippa even became the butt of jokes. His daughters still bore the feminine form – Vipsania – as was the custom, and all the slaves he manumitted went into the world as freedmen proudly bearing the family name as their own. It is as though Agrippa wanted to liberate himself from the shackles of his family’s past or its reputation and to set out on a course of his own choosing and fulfil a new destiny. His would be ‘a life spent in the very midst of arms and slaughter’, writes Pliny the Elder, ‘and ever exposed to the approaches of death.’
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What makes his story extraordinary is that, during these turbulent times, he succeeded in rising from his relative obscurity to become the second most important man next to Caesar Augustus (fleetingly, to be his political equal) and to make such a deep and lasting impression on the Roman world – arguably still felt to this day.