POPPAEA (Poppaea Sabina). - Nero's favorite, daughter of T. Ollius, of extraordinary beauty and intelligence, but dissolute and shameless, she was married to Rufinus Crispinus, by whom she had a son.

She divorced and was married by Salvius Otho, who, out of self-interest or shamelessness, presented her to Nero, who fell desperately in love with her and made her his mistress, removing Otho from Rome by appointing him governor of Lusitania. In 62, after repudiating his wife Octavia, accused of sterility, Nero married P., by whom he had a daughter who died shortly afterward. P. died in 65 from a kick given to her by Nero in a fit of rage.

According to the testimony of Josephus (Antiq. Iud., 20, 8), it appears that P. was a Jewish proselyte and as such would probably have worked in favor of the Jews to divert from their leader the accusation of the burning of Rome and turn it against the Christians.

Bibliography5 works

BIBL.: Tacitus, Annales, XIII, 43 ff.; XIV, 1, 60-63; id., Historica, I, 13; A. Profumo, Le fonti e i tempi dell'incendio neroniano, Rome 1905, p. 666 ff.; P. Allard, Storia critica delle persecuzioni, Italian trans., I, Florence 1923, p. 36.

Agostino Amore

@incollection{ec9_poppea_poppaea_sabina, author = {Amore, Agostino}, title = {Poppea (Poppaea Sabina)}, booktitle = {Enciclopedia Cattolica}, volume = {IX}, pages = {1762}, note = {Cited by column}, publisher = {Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico}, address = {Città del Vaticano}, year = {1952}, url = {https://azioneromana.com/article/poppea-poppaea-sabina} }

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Poppaea (Poppaea Sabina)

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