For others with this surname, see Agrippa (disambiguation)

Agrippa (disambiguation)

-Classical era:*Agrippa , a semi-mythological king of Alba Longa*Agrippa Menenius Lanatus, a Roman consul in 503 BC*Various members of the Roman gentes Furia and Menenia...

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Vibulenus Agrippa (called Vibullius Agrippa in Dio's Roman History) was a Roman knight of the Equestrian

Equestrian (Roman)

The Roman equestrian order constituted the lower of the two aristocratic classes of ancient Rome, ranking below the patricians , a hereditary caste that monopolised political power during the regal era and during the early Republic . A member of the equestrian order was known as an eques...

 rank who was accused of some crime, probably treason, before the senate in the final years of the reign of Tiberius

Tiberius

Tiberius , was Roman Emperor from 14 AD to 37 AD. Tiberius was by birth a Claudian, son of Tiberius Claudius Nero and Livia Drusilla. His mother divorced Nero and married Augustus in 39 BC, making him a step-son of Octavian...

, in 36 AD. His case is often mentioned to highlight the frequency with which ordinary citizens were being executed in that time, and for the novelty of the case's outcome: Vibulenus faced his accusers in the senate and swallowed poison that he had brought with him in a ring.

Undeterred, the lictor

Lictor

The lictor was a member of a special class of Roman civil servant, with special tasks of attending and guarding magistrates of the Roman Republic and Empire who held imperium, the right and power to command; essentially, a bodyguard...

s rushed his body to the prison (the tullianum) and hanged or strangled him anyway, but he was already dead. Unlike an execution, this sort of pre-emptive suicide

Suicide

Suicide is the act of intentionally causing one's own death. Suicide is often committed out of despair or attributed to some underlying mental disorder, such as depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, alcoholism, or drug abuse...

 prevented, at least in theory, the state or his accusers from claiming a share of his property, and allowed the suicide to be buried, provided they died before being convicted. Tacitus

Tacitus

Publius Cornelius Tacitus was a senator and a historian of the Roman Empire. The surviving portions of his two major works—the Annals and the Histories—examine the reigns of the Roman Emperors Tiberius, Claudius, Nero and those who reigned in the Year of the Four Emperors...

 does not record whether Agrippa's mock execution in the tullianum was sufficient to satisfy the letter of the law and allow confiscation of his property.