In short, Agrippina attempted to revive the aristocratic traditions of government which had inspired the policies of Augustus and Tiberius.  Not only did she attempt to do this, but, strange as it may seem, she succeeded almost without a struggle.  The government of Agrippina was from the first a great success.  From the moment when she became empress there is discernible in the entire administration a greater firmness and consistency of policy.  Claudius no longer seems, as formerly, to be at the mercy of his freedmen and the fleeting impulses of the moment, and even the dark shadows of the time are lighted up for some years.  A certain concord and tranquillity returned to the imperial house, to the aristocracy, to the senate, and to the state.  Although Tacitus accuses Agrippina of having made Claudius commit all sorts of cruelties, it is certain that trials, scandals, and suicide became much less frequent under her rule.  During the six years that Claudius lived after his marriage with Agrippina, scandalous tragedies became so rare that Tacitus, being deprived of his favorite materials, set down the story of these six years in a single book.  In other words, Agrippina encountered virtually no opposition, while Tiberius and even Augustus, when they wished to govern according to the traditions of the ancient nobility, had to combat the party of the new aristocracy, with its modern and oriental tendencies.  This party no longer seemed to exist when Agrippina urged Claudius to continue resolutely in the policy of his ancestors, for one party only, that of the old nobility, seemed with Agrippina to control the state.  This must have been the result partly of the disgust for the scandals of the previous decade, which had made every one realize the need of restoring more serious discipline in the government, and partly of the exhaustion which had come upon both parties as the result of so many struggles, reprisals, suits, and scandals.  The force of the opposition in the two factions gradually diminished.  A greater gentleness induced all to accept the direction of the government without resistance, and the authority of the emperor and his counselors acquired greater importance in proportion as the strength of the opposition in the aristocracy and the senate became gradually weaker.

[Illustration:  Agrippina the Younger, sister of Caligula and mother of Nero.]

In any case, the empire was no longer to have forced upon it the ridiculous and scandalous spectacle of such weaknesses and incongruities as had seriously compromised the prestige of the highest authority in the first period of the reign of Claudius.  But Agrippina was not content with merely making provision as best she could for the present; she also looked forward to the future.  She had had a son by her first husband, and at the time of her marriage with Claudius this youth was about eleven years old.  It is in connection with her plans for this son that Tacitus brings his most serious charges against Agrippina.  According to his story, from the first day of her marriage Agrippina attempted to make of her son, the future Emperor Nero, the successor of Claudius, thereby excluding Britannicus, the son of Messalina, from the throne.