DIANA ARTERIAN: Agrippina, Age Thirteen

(28 c.e., Rome)

Domitius gives her a ring of iron
Agrippina fingers it under her robes
while slaves weave her hair with flowers

place gold on her neck and wrists
She thinks of the man older
than her father ever was

At the ceremony a pregnant sow is brought forward
dark and wreathed in leaves Wine crumbs
from holy cake are dusted on its brow

for the goddess Ceres for Terra Mater
for this marriage A man raises his axe
blunt-side-down strikes the sow

slices the stunned animal’s throat opens
her belly The priest pushes fetal piglets aside
handles the entrails close to his eyes

looking for flaws Another man
places the insides on an altar for burning
Domitius watches Agrippina while the men

butcher the pig char the guts She does not look away
The priest steps into the blood face covered prays
in whispers a flute drowning out any ominous sounds



Reprinted from Agrippina The Younger. Copyright © 2025 by Diana Arterian. Published 2025 by Curbstone Books / Northwestern University Press. All rights reserved