Flavius Simonides Agrippa

Who is Flavius Simonides Agrippa?

Titus Flavius Simonides Agrippa, also known as Titus Flavius Agrippa was an aristocratic, wealthy Roman Jew.

Agrippa was born and raised in Rome. He was the second son born to the Roman Jewish Historian Josephus and from his fourth wife, a distinguished unnamed Greek Jewish noblewoman from Crete. The parents of Agrippa met in Rome and Josephus describes his mother, as one ‘in character, who excelled many women, as her subsequent life demonstrated’. Agrippa had an older full blooded brother called Justus and an older paternal half-brother called Hyrcanus.

His paternal uncle was Matthias, while his paternal grandparents were Matthias and his wife, an unnamed Jewish noblewoman. His paternal grandmother was an aristocratic woman who descended royalty and of the former ruling Hasmonean Dynasty. His paternal grandfather had descended from the priestly order of the Jehoiarib, which was the first of the twenty four-orders of Priests in the Temple in Jerusalem and was a descendant of the High Priest Jonathon. Jonathon may have been Alexander Jannaeus, the High Priest and Hasmonean ruler who governed Judea from 103 BC-76 BC.