Poppaea Sabina

Poppaea Sabina (30 AD – 65 AD), also known as Ollia, was a Roman empress as the second wife of the emperor Nero. She had also been wife to the future emperor Otho. The historians of antiquity describe her as a beautiful woman who used intrigues to become empress.

The large Villa Poppaea at Oplontis near Pompeii 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. At birth and for most of her childhood she went by her proper patronymic nomen "Ollia", belonging to women of her father's gens, the Ollii, but at some point, probably before her first marriage, decided to start going by her mother's name instead, potentially due to her father's disgrace and suicide.

It is very likely that Poppaea's family came from Pompeii, and the common belief is that they might have been the owners of the Casa del Menandro (a house in Pompeii named for the painting of the 4th century BC playwright Menander that is found there). Most evidence suggesting Poppaea's Pompeiian origins comes from the 20th-century excavations of a town that was 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.^{[citation needed]} In particular, the sumptuous Villa Poppaea at Oplontis near Herculaneum is thought to have been her main residence outside Rome.

Poppaea's father Titus Ollius was from Picenum (modern Marche and Abruzzo, Italy). He 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. Ruined by the downfall of Sejanus, Ollius killed himself in 31 AD.

Poppaea Sabina the Elder, Poppaea's mother, was a distinguished woman, described by Tacitus as wealthy and "the loveliest woman of her day". After the death of Ollius she married Publius Cornelius Lentulus Scipio the Elder; the remarriage gave Poppaea the Younger a stepbrother, Publius Cornelius Lentulus Scipio the Younger, and a half-brother, Publius Cornelius Scipio Asiaticus. In 47 AD Poppaea the Elder was caught up in Roman Empress Valeria Messalina's political campaign against Decimus Valerius Asiaticus. Baselessly accused of adultery with Asiaticus, she likewise died by suicide.

The father of Poppaea Sabina the Elder was Gaius Poppaeus Sabinus. This man of humble birth was consul in 9 AD and was the governor of Moesia from 12 to 35 AD. Passed during his consulship was the Lex Papia Poppaea, a law meant to strengthen and encourage marriage. Sabinus received a military triumph for ending a revolt in Thrace in 26 AD. From 15 AD until his death, he served as imperial Proconsul (or governor) of Greece and in other provinces. This competent administrator enjoyed the friendship of the Emperors Augustus and Tiberius. He died in late December of AD 35 from natural causes. After his death, Poppaea Sabina the Younger assumed the name of her maternal grandfather.

Poppaea's first marriage was to Rufrius Crispinus, a man of equestrian rank. They married in 44 AD, when Poppaea was 14 years old. He 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. Agrippina regarded him as loyal to the deceased Messalina's memory and replaced him with Sextus Afranius Burrus. Later, under Nero, he was executed. During their marriage, Poppaea gave birth to their son, a younger Rufrius Crispinus, who, after her death, would be drowned by Nero while on a fishing trip.