Yale's course Let This Be a Lesson turns to Benjamin West's history painting Agrippina Landing at Brundisium with the Ashes of Germanicus, a scene of Roman piety and political defiance as the widow of Germanicus brings his remains home. The lecturer traces West's career as an American-born painter who became Historical Painter to King George III, situating this canvas among his major works. Close visual analysis shows how West compresses the whole narrative of Agrippina's story, her grief, her defiance of Tiberius, and her status as a moral exemplar, into a single composed image. The lecture treats the painting as a case study in how eighteenth-century history painting used classical Roman subjects to comment on virtue, mourning, and power, walking through composition, gesture, and historical sources that shaped West's interpretation of the episode.