according to Tacitus, was born of humble parents about 69 years B.C.; yet he could scarcely have been of very mean birth, as at the age of 18 he was the chosen companion at Apollonia of Octavius, the nephew and successor of Julius Caesar; many of whose successes were mainly due to the courage and military talents of Agrippa. On the assassination of the dictator, Agrippa accompanied his friend to Italy, and rendered essential service in the conduct of the first war against M. Antonius, which terminated in the capture of Perusia, into which L. Antonius, the younger brother of the triumvir, had thrown himself. He appears to have had no part in the atrocious butcheries that followed the capture of that city, which cast such a deep stain on the character of Octavius. The event took place 40 years B.C. Three years after this Agrippa was made consul, and had the command in Gaul; when he defeated the Aquitani, and led the Roman eagles beyond the Rhine, to punish the aggressions of the Germans on the province of Gaul. But Agrippa was soon summoned to Italy by the critical state of the affairs of Octavius; where the whole coasts were commanded by the superior fleets of Sex. Pompeius. His first care was the formation of a secure harbour for the ships of Octavius; and this he accomplished by uniting the Lucrine lake with the sea by means of a fortified canal through a narrow slip of land called the Barrier of Hercules. He made an inner haven also by joining the lake Avernus to the Lucrine by another cut. In these secure ports the fleets were equipped, and 20,000 man- nitted slaves were sedulously trained to rowing and naval manoeuvres, until they were able to cope with the seamen of Pompeius. Agrippa was thus enabled in the following year to defeat S. Pompeius in the naval action of Mylae, in which he captured 30 ships from his opponent; and soon after gave him a more signal defeat near Naulochus, sinking 28, and capturing or burning 250 of his ships. This victory gave Octavius the empire of the Mediterranean, and secured to him Sicily, the granary of Rome, after an easy triumph over his feeble colleague Lepidus; and it prepared the way for the overthrow of the power of M. Antonius the other triumvir. The whole merit of these successes is due to Agrippa; for Octavius scarcely exhibited common courage in any of these transactions. In the year 33 B.C., Agrippa filled the useful office of admiral; and he signalized the tenure of his office by fresh proofs of the activity and perseverance of his character, by the great improvements in the city of Rome, in the repairs and construction of aqueducts and fountains neglected or injured during the civil wars, and in the reformation of the sewers of the capital, which he repaired and enlarged until they became what Pliny has described them—“Operum omnium maximum, suffusio montibus, atque urbe pensili, subterque navigata.” He appears also on this occasion to have introduced an effectual mode of flushing those sewers by conducting into them the united waters of several different streams.

From these useful labours he was again called away in the year 31 B.C. to command the Roman fleet, which by the victory at Actium fixed the empire of the world on the unworthy Octavius. The services of Agrippa made him a special favourite with the former, who gave him his niece Marcella in marriage, 27 B.C., when for a third time he was consul; and in the following year the senate bestowed on Octavius the imperial title of Augustus. In this same year Agrippa, in commemoration of the naval victory of Actium, dedicated to Jupiter and all the other gods the pantheon, now called Rotunda. The inscription on its portico still remains, M. AGRIPPA L. F. CONSUL TERTIUM FECIT. But it is probable that he only added the magnificent portico to a much more ancient building; as a minute examination of the architecture of the structure appears to indicate. In the year 25 B.C. we again find this eminent man employed in Spain; where he reduced the insurgent Cantabri, the ancestors of the present Biscayans.

The friendship of Augustus and Agrippa seems to have been clouded by the jealousy of Marcellus, who had married Julia the daughter of Augustus by Scribonia. This coolness was probably fomented by the intrigues of Livia, the second wife of Augustus, who probably dreaded his influence with her husband. The consequence was that Agrippa left Rome; and though, to cloak his retirement, he was appointed to the distant government of Syria, he repaired to Mytilene. But Marcellus dying within a year, Agrippa was recalled to Rome; and at the desire of Augustus was divorced from Marcella, and became the husband of the widowed Julia, who was no less distinguished by her beauty and abilities, than afterwards by her shameless profligacy.

In 19 B.C. we find Agrippa again at the head of an army in Spain, where he subdued the Cantabri, who had been for two years in insurrection against the Romans. After that he was a second time made governor of Syria; where by his justice and wise administration he obtained general commendation, especially from the Hebrew population of his province, of which Judea formed a part.

The last military employment of this great and good man was in Pannonia, where his character for equity alone sufficed to put down insurrection, without bloodshed. In fact he was the greatest military commander of Rome since the days of Julius Caesar, and the most honest of Roman governors in any province. His character is well described by V. Paternulas, “Virtutis nobilissima, labore, vigilii, periculo invictus, parendique sed uni scientissimus, aliis sane imperandi cupidus, et per omnia extra dilationes positus, consultissime facta conjungens.”

This great man returned to Italy, where he lived greatly honoured, and died two years before his imperial father-in-law.

Agrippa left several children; by his first wife—Pomponia Vipsania, who became the first wife of Tiberius, and was the mother of Drusus; he had no children by Marcella; but by Julia he was the father of Cains and Lucius Caesar; of Julia, married to Lepidus; of Agrippina the elder, wife of Germanicus; and of Agrippa Posthumus.—See Dio.Agrippina Cassius; Appianus; Suetonius; Velleius Paterculus; Ferguson’s R. Rep.