They said she was a tyrant, a murderer and the most wicked woman in history.

She kicked her way into the male spaces of politics and demanded to be recognised as an equal and a leader. For her audacity, she was murdered by her son and reviled by history.

She was the sister, niece, wife and mother of emperors. She was an empress in her own right. And she was a nuanced, fearless trailblazer in the Roman world.

The story of Agrippina – the first empress of Rome – is the story of an empire at its bloody, extravagant, chaotic, ruthless height.