Agrippina Survives the Parricide Ship
A moonless night, a collapsing pleasure boat, and the most dangerous mother in Rome swimming for her life.
Unknown — "Table" (ca. 1775–80), public domain
A mother, a son, and a trap at sea.
In 59 AD, Emperor Nero invited his mother Agrippina on a pleasure cruise. He had the boat rigged to collapse and toss her overboard, hoping to make her death look like an accident. In the dark waters, the ship gave way.
She swims—Nero’s plan sinks.
Most would have drowned. Not Agrippina. Bruised and bleeding, she struck out for shore and somehow survived the assassination by shipwreck. Back on land, she sent a message to her son, pretending nothing had happened.
The final reckoning.
Nero panicked. Days later, he sent assassins to finish what the sea could not. Agrippina died in her own villa, but not before meeting her killers with the famous words—according to Tacitus—"Strike my womb first."
Nero tried to kill his own mother with a sabotaged ship. She swam to shore—and he had to finish the job another way.
