Agrippina condotta a morire or Dunque sarà pur vero exactly when or where the cantata, to a text by an anonymous author, was first performed, but it is probable that it was one of the many secular cantatas Handel composed for entertainment at the palace of Cardinal Ruspoli in Rome, at some point between 1707- 08. The soloist was probably the soprano castrato Pasqualino Tiepoli. The historical Roman empress Agrippina the Younger, wife of the emperor Claudius, had plotted to make her son by another marriage, Nero, Claudius' heir to the throne and had finally poisoned her husband, according to various Roman historians, to ensure the success of her
Vipsania Marcella Vipsania Marcella Vipsania Marcella Agrippina or Marcellina or Vipsania Tertia (born 27 BC or later) was perhaps the only daughter of Roman statesman Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa by his second wife Claudia Marcella Major. If so, she was the first grandchild to Octavia Minor and first great-niece to Roman Emperor Augustus. If she truly had the name Marcella, there is no way that she was a daughter of Agrippa's first wife, Caecilia Attica. She and her elder sister Vipsania Agrippina were married off to Quintus Haterius (cos. 5 BC), Publius Quinctilius Varus (cos. 13 BC) and Tiberius (also cos. 13 BC)