AGRICOLA, GNAEUS IULIUS (A.D. 3 , Roman general, father-in-law of the historian Tacitus, was born on June 13, A.D. 37 (according to others, 39) at Forum Iulii (Frejus) in Gallia Narbonensis. His grandfathers were of equestrian rank; his father became a senator, but was put to death by Caligula. Agricola was brought up by his mother at Massilia. He entered the army and served (S9) under Suetonius Paulinus in Britain. In 61 he returned to Rome, where he married Domitia Decidiana, a Roman lady of distinction. In 63 he was quaestor in Asia, in 65 tribune, in 68 praetor, and when Vespasian was proclaimed em peror, he immediately declared himself his supporter. In 7o hh was appointed to the command of the loth Legion in Britain, then stationed at Deva (Chester). On his return to Rome, at the end of three years, he was made censor, raised to the rank of patrician, and appointed governor of Aquitania (74-78)• Appointed consul su ff ectus in the following year, he was admitted into the college of pontiffs and made governor of Britain. In the same year he be trothed his daughter to Tacitus.
Agricola spent at least seven years in Britain. After conquering the Ordovices in North Wales and the island of Mona (Anglesey), during the next two years he advanced to the Taus (Tay; others read Tanaus, perhaps the north Tyne), and in his fourth campaign fortified the country between Clota and Bodotria (the firths of Clyde and Forth) as a protection against the attacks of the Cale donians. Having explored the coasts of Fife and Forfar, he gained a decisive victory over the Caledonians under Galgacus at the Graupian hill. (See BRITAIN : Roman.) Between campaigns he busied himself in helping forward the Romanization of his prov ince. But his successes had aroused the suspicion of Domitian. He was recalled to Rome, where he lived in retirement, refusing the proconsulship of Asia. He died in 93, poisoned, it was rumoured, by the emperor's orders.
See Tacitus, Agricola; Urlich's De Vita et Honoribus Agricolae (1868) ; Dio Cassius, xxxix. so, lxvi. 20; T. Mommsen, Provinces of the Roman Empire (Eng. trans., 1886), i. 183-184,