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All 3 of the accounts listed regarding Agrippina's death are subjects of the article in question and suspected of outright making things up. Your own link even

by p_j_w 5y ago

All 3 of the accounts listed regarding Agrippina's death are subjects of the article in question and suspected of outright making things up. Your own link even puts forth the fact that all three accounts are unbelievable. I don't know the current consensus on all of that, but I know that the consensus is that most of the more outrageous things Suetonius had to say about the 12 Caesars was nonsense. I don't think it'd be all that surprising if Tacitus and Cassius Dio did similarly.

CalChris 5y ago
I haven’t read Dio but Tacitus struck me as quite sober. He didn’t mix in myth the way Livy did (Romulus and Remus in a history?).
- 0xbadcafebee 5y ago
  I haven't dug into it much, but isn't Tacitus also one of three sources about Caligula? Could it not be that a lot of the reputation of the Julio-Claudians was exaggerated well after nobody could or would defend them?
  - rkk3 5y ago
    Easy to underestimate the historians incentive to blame the previous regime & to paint their patrons ancestors in good light.
  - rsynnott 5y ago
    The more fantastical Caligula stuff also generally isn't taken seriously these days.
- p_j_w 5y ago
  The best propagandist makes it a little believable, right?