Agricola, Gnaeus Julius (37–93) Roman general
Although Gnaeus Agricola is remembered for his con-
quests of the British Isles, most of the information on
him comes from notes taken by his son-in-law, the
famed Roman historian Tacitus, which appeared in
the work Agricola. He was born on 13 June a.d. 37 in
Forum Julii, in the province of Gallia Narbonensis (now
Fréjus, in the area of Provence, France), the son of Julius
Graecinus, a praetor (a magistrate with judicial duties).
When he was 18, he was made a tribunus laticlavius
(military tribune) on the military staff of Gaius Sueto-
nius Paulinus, who served as governor of Britain from
a.d. 58 to 61. He also served on the staff of Paulinus’s
successor, Publius Petronius Turpilianus. After marrying,
Agricola was made a quaestor (a magistrate with finan-
cial powers), considered the first step in a career in the
Roman governmental hierarchy. In 66 he was advanced
to the office of people’s tribune, and two years later he
became a praetor peregrinus (a judicial magistrate who
decided cases between foreigners).
In a.d. 69, when a civil war broke out in Rome,
Agricola sided with Vespasian against the Emperor Vitel-
lius. Vespasian was victorious, and he rewarded Agricola
by naming him legatus legionis (commander of a legion
[today’s general]). He commanded the 20th Legion in
Britain, serving under the governor Quintus Petillius
Cerialis. Agricola was given the status of a patrician
when he returned to Rome in 73 and served for a short
time as governor of Aquitania (a.d. 74–77). In 77, he
was named a consul as well as legatus augusti pro-prae-
tore, or governor, of Britain. It was during this period
that Agricola rose to become a major military leader.
From 78 until 84, he fought numerous tribes in En-
gland and Wales. In 78, Roman forces decisively de-
feated the Ordovices tribe in northern Wales and routed
the Druids on the island of Ynys Môn (today’s Angle-
sey) off the northwestern coast of Wales. Using these vic-
tories, Agricola colonized England with a series of
garrisons. Marching northward and westward into Scot-
land and Wales, his forces took more territory under
their control, and he established a frontier of posts
between the firths of Clota and Bodotria (now the
Clyde and Forth rivers). In 83, the Caledonians tried
to destroy Roman forces, but the Romans crossed the
Forth and Agricola defeated them at Mons Graupius
(now Ardock) in 84. A legacy of Agricola’s campaign is
the Roman fortress at Inchtuthil (near Dunkeld), built
that year.
It was at this time that the new Roman emperor,
Domitian, recalled Agricola to Rome, probably out of
jealously of Agricola’s conquest of the British islands. Ag-
ricola was offered the proconsulship of Asia (today’s west-
ern Turkey), but he refused and instead retired to his family
home in Gallia Narbonensis (today’s southern France),
where he died on 23 August 93 at the age of 53.References: Tacitus, Cornelius, The Agricola, edited by
Duane Reed Stuart (New York: Macmillan, 1924); Han-
son, W. S., Agricola and the Conquest of the North (Totowa,
N.J.: Barnes and Noble, 1987); Charlesworth, Martin Per-
cival, Five Men: Character Studies from the Roman Empire
(Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1936).Agrippa, Marcus Vipsanius (63–12 b.c.)
Roman general and statesman
Little is known of Marcus Agrippa’s beginnings. He was
born in 63 b.c. to parents of a lower class, although
some historians doubt this; his schooling and upbring-
ing remain unknown. At some point in his life he be-
came friends with Octavian (later augustus), whose
uncle, Julius caesar, became the great Roman general
and statesman. Agrippa was at Octavian’s side when
the latter was informed in March 44 b.c. that Caesar
had been assassinated in Rome, and Agrippa went with
him to Rome to claim the throne of the Roman Em-
pire. When Caesar’s enemies blocked Octavian, Agrippa
aided his friend in forming a private army to fight them.
Although the two were close during this period, no
mention of Agrippa is made in any of the histories of
the famous battles between Octavian and his enemies,
most notably Philippi (42 b.c.). However, during the
so-called War of Perusia (40 b.c.), a year-long siege of
what is today Perugia, Agrippa took a leading role, and
Octavian rewarded him by naming him governor of
Gaul (modern France).
In 38 b.c., while still governor of Gaul, Agrippa
led an army to annihilate a force of rebel tribes from
Aquitane; he followed this victory by crossing the Rhine
River in a punitive expedition against the German
tribes, a service for which he was named consul. At the
same time, Octavian had been defeated by Sextus Pom-
peius, the son of the famed Roman general PomPey,
at the battle of Cumæ (38 b.c.). Agrippa took control
of Octavian’s army in what is known as the War of the
Second Triumvirate. At Naucholus on 3 September 36 AgRicolA, gnAeuS JuliuS