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date: 15 February 2025

Poppaea Sabinalocked

Poppaea Sabinalocked

  • Theodore John Cadoux
  • , and M. T. Griffin

Extract

Poppaea Sabina, daughter of T. Ollius (d. 31 ce), and named after her maternal grandfather C. Poppaeus Sabinus (consul 9 ce, governor of Moesia 12–35), was married first to Rufrius Crispinus, prefect of the praetorians under Claudius, by whom she had a son later killed by *Nero. By 58, during her second marriage, to the future emperor *Otho, she became mistress of Nero (so Tac.Ann. 13.45 f.; another version in Hist. 1.13). It was allegedly at her instigation that Nero murdered *Iulia Agrippina in 59 and in 62 divorced, banished, and executed *Claudia Octavia. Nero now married Poppaea, who bore a daughter Claudia in 63; both mother and child received the surname Augusta, but the child died at four months. Through Poppaea's influence, her native *Pompeii became a colony (see also oplontis). *Josephus, who secured a favour from her in Rome, apparently attests to her Jewish sympathies (though the word θεοσεβής is problematic), but she actually did the Jews a disservice in securing her friend's husband, *Gessius Florus, the procuratorship (see procurator) of *Judaea in 64 (Vit.

Subjects

  • Roman History and Historiography

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