Julio-Claudian dynasty reign as being strongly influenced by his mother Agrippina, his tutor Seneca, and the Praetorian Prefect Burrus, especially in the first year. He was made Emperor over his step-brother, Claudius' son Britannicus, who he had killed. Agrippina was believed to have poisoned Claudius, having allegedly poisoned her second husband Gaius Sallustius Crispus Passienus. She had also arranged the deaths of Caligula's third wife, Lollia Paulina and Messalina's mother Domitia Lepida the Younger. She saw that the dynasty's numbers dwindle with the execution of Marcus Junius Silanus Torquatus, a grandson of Julia the Younger, to strengthen Nero's claim, having previously arranged
Agrippina the Younger Drusilla and Julia Livilla. Agrippina's two elder brothers and her mother were victims of the intrigues of the Praetorian Prefect Lucius Aelius Sejanus. She was the namesake of her mother. Agrippina the Elder was remembered as a modest and heroic matron, who was the second daughter and fourth child of Julia the Elder and the statesman Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa. The father of Julia the Elder was the Emperor Augustus, and Julia was his only natural child from his second marriage to Scribonia, who had close blood relations with Pompey the Great and Lucius Cornelius Sulla. Maternally, Agrippina descended directly from