Poppaea

The troubles of 66 were precipitated by Gessius Florus, the brutal new Roman procurator of Judaea whom Poppaea, the woman for whom Nero had finally exiled and executed Claudia Octavia and murdered his mother, had recommended for the post in 65.

Caesars’ Wives Annelise Freisenbruch 2010

Her reputed beauty, her exoticism, her otherness, the fascination she exerted over the emperor were all the hallmarks of several of the straw-women who troubled the Roman imagination, from Cleopatra to Poppaea.

Caesars’ Wives Annelise Freisenbruch 2010

Envious of his acquisition of the gardens she wanted for herself and jealous of his lover Poppaea Sabina, her rival for the attentions of the celebrated Greek actor Mnester, Messalina put her legal henchman Publius Suillius to work.

Caesars’ Wives Annelise Freisenbruch 2010

Poppaea Sabina was similarly pressured into committing suicide.37

Caesars’ Wives Annelise Freisenbruch 2010

On the Lex Papia Poppaea of 9, which curbed the inheritance rights of women with fewer than three children, with a handful of special exceptions, including Livia herself, see Cassius Dio, 55.2.5–6.

Caesars’ Wives Annelise Freisenbruch 2010

She did not attract the same attention as a Messalina or a Poppaea among writers and artists postantiquity looking for a Pygmalionesque mannequin of intoxicating sexual allure, but the fascination she has exerted has been just as enduring.

Caesars’ Wives Annelise Freisenbruch 2010

However, when the train bell woke her (at Philadelphia, if memory serves) she went to work like Poppaea on honeymoon, which I took as a compliment, before resuming her impersonation of a Trappist nun, if there is such a thing.

THE NUMBERS 2010

Not totally pursued in the highest run of cremation; for when even crows were funerally burnt, Poppaea the wife of Nero found a peculiar grave interment.

Hydriotaphia, or Urn-burial 2007

Even Otho did not lose all his rights; Nero exiled him with a commission of honor, "because he was caught in adultery with his own wife, Poppaea."

Satyricon 2007

Sybarites, or Nero's Poppaea, Ahasuerus 'concubines, so costly, so long a dressing, as Caesar was marshalling his army, or a hawk in pruning?

Anatomy of Melancholy 2007