Early Life and Personality
Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa Postumus was born on June 26, 12 BC, the youngest of five children. His father Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa died before he was born. Augustus adopted two of his son-in-law's children, making sons of these grandchildren Gaius Caesar and Lucius Caesar. Postumus he left unadopted, so he could continue the family name.
However, upon the death of Lucius and then Gaius Caesar, Augustus finally decided to adopt both his grandson Postumus and step-son Tiberius (Postumus' stepfather) as his heirs, with Postumus first in the succession. As the designated heir, he became Marcus Julius Caesar Agrippa Postumus, while his stepfather Tiberius became "Tiberius Julius Caesar". The anxiety over who would follow in Augustus' footsteps naturally set up Postumus and Tiberius in opposition.
Although there is little clear contemporary account of him, virtually all Roman historians agree that Postumus was considered a rude and brutish sort; Tacitus defended him, but his praise was slight: the young, physically tough, indeed brutish, Agrippa Postumus. Though devoid of every good quality, he had been involved in no scandal.
Read more about this topic: Agrippa Postumus
Famous quotes containing the words early, life and/or personality:
“I have always had something to live besides a personal life. And I suspected very early that to live merely in an experience of, in an expression of, in a positive delight in the human cliches could be no business of mine.”
—Margaret Anderson (1886–1973)
“Poetry isn’t a profession, it’s a way of life. It’s an empty basket; you put your life into it and make something out of that.”
—Mary Oliver (b. 1935)
“Poetry is not a turning loose of emotion, but an escape from emotion; it is not the expression of personality, but an escape from personality. But, of course, only those who have personality and emotions know what it means to want to escape from these things.”
—T.S. (Thomas Stearns)