Poppea Sabina

 Poppaea Sabina (AD 30 – AD 65; known as Poppaea Sabina the Younger to differentiate her from her mother, and, after AD 63, as Poppaea Augusta Sabina) was a Roman Empress as the second wife of the EmperorNero. She had also been wife to the future emperor Otho. The historians of antiquitydescribe her as a beautiful woman who used intrigues to become empress.

There is a large villa near Pompeii that bears her name because of the archaeological finds there. It has been largely excavated and can be visited today.

Poppaea Sabina the Younger was born in Pompeii in AD 30 as the daughter of Titus Ollius and Poppaea Sabina the Elder. ^{Most evidence suggesting Poppaea's Pompeiian origins comes from the 20th century excavations of the town, destroyed in the Eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79. For instance, legal documents found during excavations in nearby Herculaneum described her as being the owner of a brick- or tile-work business in the Pompeii area.}

^{Titus Ollius was a quaestor in the reign of the Emperor Tiberius. Ollius' friendship with the infamous imperial palace guardsman Lucius Aelius Sejanus ruined him before gaining public office.}

^{Poppaea Sabina the Elder, her mother, was a distinguished woman, whom Tacitus praises as wealthy and "the loveliest woman of her day". In 47, she committed suicide as an innocent victim of the intrigues of the Roman Empress Valeria Messalina, having been charged with committing adultery with former consul Decimus Valerius Asiaticus.}

^{Poppaea's first marriage was to Rufrius Crispinus, a man of equestrian rank. They married in 44, when Poppaea was 14 years old. He was the leader of the Praetorian Guardduring the first 10 years of the reign of the Emperor Claudius until 51 when Claudius' new wife Agrippina the Younger removed him from this position.} 

^{Later, under Nero, he was executed. During their marriage, Poppaea gave birth to his son, a younger Rufrius Crispinus, who, after her death, would be drowned by Nero while out on a fishing trip.}

^{Poppaea then married Otho, a good friend of the new Emperor Nero, who was seven years younger than she was. According to Tacitus, Poppaea married Otho only to get close to Nero. Nero fell in love with Poppaea, and she became his mistress.}

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

With Agrippina gone, Poppaea pressured Nero to divorce and later execute his first wife and stepsister Claudia Octavia in order to marry her. 

Tacitus and Suetonius portray Poppaea as an ambitious and ruthless schemer. The Jewish historian Josephus paints a different picture. He calls Poppaea a worshipper of the Jewish God and urged Nero to show compassion to the Jewish people. In one account, Josephus shows how Poppaea advocated for Jewish priests when an issue was brought before Nero by Herod Agrippa II, who was the ruler of Jerusalem, concerning a wall that was built blocking Agrippa's view of the temple. She convinced Nero to not order the Jewish priests to tear down the wall and to leave the temple as is. 

The cause and timing of Poppaea's death is uncertain. According to Suetonius, while she was awaiting the birth of her second child in the summer of 65, she quarrelled fiercely with Nero over his spending too much time at the races. In a fit of rage, Nero kicked her in the abdomen, causing her death. 

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

^{After that in 67, Nero ordered Sporus, a young freedman, to be castrated and then married him; according to Cassius Dio, Sporus bore an uncanny resemblance to Poppaea, and Nero even called him by his dead wife’s name.}