This is CBSI on the world.

I'm John Batchel with Anthony Everett and Roddy Ashworth, the authors of the new book

Nero Matrocyde Music and Murder in Imperial Rome.

We're spending time with Agrippina, Nero's mother, because that, well, modern psychology

says that's everything.

However, at the same time, Agrippina deserves attention because not only do we know that she's

the daughter of three of the very famous and celebrated Germanicus, the daughter of Agrippina,

Germanicus's wife, she is the granddaughter of,

well, she descends from the Julian Claudian dynasties. They come together here at this time in the 30s and 40s. But she also has ambition to be preencepts or near two

precepts, to rule through the precepts, who's her son. But in order to do that, with Anna

Barras, her husband gone, left the field. He's dead. She needs to marry Claudius, the new

emperor who rises, we believe, Anthony, again, this is a mystery to me.

Did Claudius know that Caligula was going to be assassinated? Was he part of the plot?

I think it's quite possible that he did know his all the plot, which involved him. But if so, it was

very well handled, and we don't know.

I know we've not been told in so many words.

By the way, I should just remind you that Claudius says Agrippina's uncle.

Agrippina's uncle, yes.

But first he's married to Messalina, and we need to spend some time with Messalina just a moment

because she's another force of nature in Rome. Her force of

nature seems to be to conquer men through sexuality, but at the same time, she humiliates

Claudius all the time because of her many, they're not really affairs, they're Tris, and Claudius

...