Marcius Agrippa was originally a slave serving as a beautician. He later became a freedman

Freedman

A freedman is a former slave who has been released from slavery, usually by legal means. Historically, slaves became freedmen either by manumission or emancipation ....

 in some unknown way and then (illegally) started to encroach upon the rank of Equestrian

Equestrian (Roman)

The Roman equestrian order constituted the lower of the two aristocratic classes of ancient Rome, ranking below the patricians , a hereditary caste that monopolised political power during the regal era and during the early Republic . A member of the equestrian order was known as an eques...

, serving as advocatus fisci (an important official of the imperial treasury) during the reign of Septimius Severus

Septimius Severus

Septimius Severus , also known as Severus, was Roman Emperor from 193 to 211. Severus was born in Leptis Magna in the province of Africa. As a young man he advanced through the customary succession of offices under the reigns of Marcus Aurelius and Commodus. Severus seized power after the death of...

. His impersonation of a man of higher rank was discovered shortly afterwards, and the emperor exiled him to an island. He was called back to Rome by the emperor Caracalla

Caracalla

Caracalla , was Roman emperor from 198 to 217. The eldest son of Septimius Severus, he ruled jointly with his younger brother Geta until he murdered the latter in 211...

, probably given a grant of ingenui

Ingenui

Ingenui or ingenuitas , was a legal term of ancient Rome indicating those freemen who were born free, as distinct from, for example, freedmen, who were freemen who had once been slaves....

tas, (i.e., an official declaration that he had the rights and legal status of one who had been born free) and he was elevated to senator

Roman Senate

The Senate of the Roman Republic was a political institution in the ancient Roman Republic, however, it was not an elected body, but one whose members were appointed by the consuls, and later by the censors. After a magistrate served his term in office, it usually was followed with automatic...

ial rank. He was appointed by the emperor Macrinus

Macrinus

Macrinus , was Roman Emperor from 217 to 218. Macrinus was of "Moorish" descent and the first emperor to become so without membership in the senatorial class.-Background and career:...

 in 217, first to the government of Pannonia

Pannonia

Pannonia was an ancient province of the Roman Empire bounded north and east by the Danube, coterminous westward with Noricum and upper Italy, and southward with Dalmatia and upper Moesia....

 and afterwards to that of Dacia

Dacia

In ancient geography, especially in Roman sources, Dacia was the land inhabited by the Dacians or Getae as they were known by the Greeks—the branch of the Thracians north of the Haemus range...

.

He is almost certainly the same person as the Marcius Agrippa, Roman admiral (likely of the Misenum fleet

Classis Misenensis

The classis Misenensis , later awarded the honorifics praetoria and Pia Vindex, was the senior fleet of the imperial Roman Navy.- History :...

), who is mentioned by Spartianus "as privy to the death of Antoninus Caracallus

Caracalla

Caracalla , was Roman emperor from 198 to 217. The eldest son of Septimius Severus, he ruled jointly with his younger brother Geta until he murdered the latter in 211...

."