- Acerronia Polla
Acerronia Polla was a servant and friend of
Agrippina the Younger , the mother ofNero . She was drowned in 59 AD, when an unsuccessful attempt was made at the same time to drown Agrippina. [Citation
last = Smith
first = William Smith
author-link = William Smith (lexicographer)
contribution = Acerronia
editor-last = Smith
editor-first = William
title =Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology
volume = 1
pages = 7
publisher =
place = Boston
year = 1867
contribution-url = http://www.ancientlibrary.com/smith-bio/0016.html ]Tacitus's account indicates that
Agrippina the Younger had set sail on a cruise on which Nero had secreted conspirators intent on killing her. Agrippina and Acerronia, along with the steersman Crepereius Gallus, were underneath a canopy on deck which had been secretly weighted with lead. At a given signal, the canopy fell, killing the steersman, but missing Agripping and Acerronia because of the high-backed couch they had been sitting on.Tacitus , "Annals" xiv. 4]There had been a mechanism designed to
scuttle the ship, although it malfunctioned, and the conspirators failed in their further efforts to sink the craft. Meanwhile, Agrippina and Acerronia entered the water. Acerronia called out, claiming that she was Agrippina. The conspirators struck her with poles and oars until she had either been bludgeoned to death or drowned. Agrippina, wounded in the shoulder, managed to swim to a passing fishing boat.The account of
Cassius Dio is fundamentally the same, although he does indicate that the boat was in fact scuttled, and that Acerronia drowned. He also mentions nothing about Agrippina being rescued by a passing boat, and instead claims she swam all the way to shore on her own. [Cassius Dio , lxi. 13]References
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