23 Facts About Poppaea Sabina

Poppaea Sabina, known as Ollia, was a Roman empress as the second wife of the emperor Nero.

Poppaea Sabina had been wife to the future emperor Otho.

Poppaea Sabina the Younger was born in Pompeii in AD 30 as the daughter of Titus Ollius and Poppaea Sabina the Elder.

Poppaea Sabina had a minor career in imperial politics during the reign of Emperor Tiberius, attaining the rank of quaestor and cultivating a friendship with the infamous praetorian prefect Lucius Aelius Sejanus.

Poppaea Sabina the Elder, Poppaea's mother, was a distinguished woman, described by Tacitus as wealthy and "the loveliest woman of her day".

Poppaea Sabina was the leader of the Praetorian Guard during the first 10 years of the reign of the Emperor Claudius until 51 AD, when Claudius' new wife, Agrippina the Younger, removed him from this position.

Poppaea Sabina then married Otho, a good friend of the new Emperor Nero who was seven years younger than she was.

Poppaea Sabina later divorced Otho and focused her attentions solely on becoming Nero's new wife.

Tacitus depicts Poppaea Sabina as inducing Nero to murder his mother, Agrippina in 59 AD so that she could marry him.

In one account, Josephus shows how Poppaea Sabina advocated for the Jewish priests when an issue was brought before Nero by Herod Agrippa II, who was the Tetrarch of Jerusalem, concerning a wall that was built blocking Agrippa's view of the temple.

Poppaea Sabina convinced Nero to not order the Jewish priests to tear down the wall and to leave the temple as is.

However, in 64, Poppaea Sabina secured the position of procurator of Judaea for Gessius Florus, her friend's husband, who was harmful to the Jews.

Furthermore, a Greek poem encrypted on a frayed piece of papyrus reads that a deified Poppaea Sabina "made a loving farewell speech to Nero, before [ascending] off to heaven on a chariot driven by a goddess", indicating her death was not caused by an act of violence of Nero's.

When Poppaea Sabina died in 65, Nero went into deep mourning.

Per the Roman imperial tradition, Poppaea Sabina was given a state funeral.

Tacitus writes that Poppaea Sabina was embalmed by having her body filled with various herbs and spices and was buried in the Tomb of the Julii, but her actual burial spot is unknown.

Fifteen centuries after her death, Poppaea Sabina was depicted in Claudio Monteverdi's last opera, L'incoronazione di Poppea in 1642.

Poppaea Sabina is portrayed as cynically plotting to become empress of Rome by manipulating the emperor Nero into marrying her, and her machinations include the execution of Seneca the Younger, who opposes her plans, which are successful at the end of the drama.

Poppaea Sabina is a principal character in Handel's 1709 opera Agrippina, but as a victim, not a perpetrator, of deceit and manipulation.

Once Poppaea Sabina sees through Agrippina's deceit, she responds in kind, but only in order to be united with Otho, portrayed as her one true love.

Poppaea Sabina appears as a character in the several cinema and TV versions of Henryk Sienkiewicz's novel Quo Vadis:.

Poppaea Sabina is portrayed by Catherine McCormack in the 2006 BBC docudrama Ancient Rome: The Rise and Fall of an Empire.

Poppaea Sabina is a character in the 2004 drama film Nero, played by Elisa Tovati.