Ahve, and welcome to Emperor of Rome, a Roman history podcast from Latrobe University.

I'm your host Matt Smith and with me today is Dr. Emma Southen, a historian and author, her most recent book is called

A Fatal Thing Happened on the way to the Forum.

This is episode CLFI, Agrippina, mother of Nero. As the wife

to the Emperor and daughter of Germanicus, Agrippina had grown accustomed to being a voice of influence in Rome.

This changed when her son Nero took the title and she struggled to have her voice heard.

He is Emma Southen.

Nero becomes Emperor and Agrippina's role changes almost immediately.

Like within the week that he becomes Emperor, you see a big shift in the way that she is able to

operate. You first see it in a speech that Nero gives when he is a being

acclaimed Emperor by the Senate, which was written by Seneca,

where he says that the imperial household will no longer be an influence in his government.

And that is a deliberate barb at people like Palace,

the Friedman, and also at Agrippina, who has been a really strong influence and it is Seneca saying

through Nero that Agrippina is not going to be the figure in Nero's reign that she has been previously.

She's not going to be a public representation of Nero's reign.

So Seneca essentially owes his position to Agrippina who brought him back to oversee

Nero's education but this feels like a bit of maneuvering on his part to

sideline her a bit.

Maybe he's looking out in Nero's best interests.

Quite possibly, he's very conservative.

Agrippina's one of her first acts is to bring him back from exile and to install him as

...