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
Agrippina the Elder the island of Pandateria, where she would remain until her death by starvation in AD 33. Following the Roman custom of parents and children sharing the same nomen and cognomen, women in the same family would often share the same name. Accordingly, Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa had many relatives who shared the name "Vipsania Agrippina". To distinguish Marcus Agrippa's daughter from his granddaughter, historians refer to his daughter as Latin "Agrippina Maior", literally "Agrippina the Elder". Likewise, Agrippina's daughter is referred to as "Agrippina Minor", literally "Agrippina the Younger". Like her father, Agrippina the Elder avoided her cognomen and was never