Vipsanius Clemens (died 16 AD) was an impostor in Ancient Rome who attempted to impersonate the Roman emperor Augustus' grandson Postumus Agrippa (Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa Postumus). He afterwards also became known as pseudo-Agrippa.[1]
He was a former slave of Agrippa Postumus, the grandson of Augustus, who was killed around when Tiberius came to power. Clemens appeared claiming that he really was Postumus and gained a significant band of followers but was captured and executed by Tiberius. It is reputed that when he was brought before Tiberius, he was asked, "How did you become Agrippa?" Clemens replied, "The same way you became Caesar".[2] [3] [4]
Meyer Reinhold noted a magistrate at Verona in Venetia and Histria in 1 BC named Sextus Vipsanius Clemens who was the son of a Marcus Vipsanius and was possibly associated with Clemens the impostor.[5] August Pauly proposed that the man could be the impostor's son.[6] Anthony A. Barrett believes the two should not be assumed to be the same man.[7] Ralf Scharf states in his work Agrippa Postumus: Splitter einer historischen Figur that "Clemens" is simply too common a name for there to be any certain connection.[8]
Robert Graves, in his novel I, Claudius, makes the suggestion that the person really was Postumus. That was not included in the 1976 television adaptation, which does not include Clemens and instead explicitly shows Postumus being killed in exile.