Poppaea Sabina Rome and Nero's new wife. Otho was ordered away to be governor of Lusitania. (A decade later, he became emperor briefly after Nero's death in succession to Galba.) Suetonius places these events after 59. According to Tacitus, Poppaea was ambitious and ruthless. He reports that Poppaea married Otho to get close to Nero, and then in turn, became Nero's favorite mistress. Tacitus claims that Poppaea was the reason that Nero murdered his mother. Poppaea induced Nero to murder Agrippina in 59 so that she could marry him. Modern scholars, though, question the reliability of this story as Nero did not
Poppaea (gens) Poppaea (gens) The gens Poppaea was a minor plebeian family at Rome. Members of this gens first appear under the early Empire, when two brothers served as consuls in AD 9. The Roman empress Poppaea Sabina was a descendant of this family, but few others achieved any prominence in the Roman state. A number of Poppaei are known from inscriptions. The name is sometimes confused with that of "Pompeia". The consul Gaius Poppaeus Sabinus is said to have come from an undistinguished family, and to have owed his lengthy career more to his competence than his brilliance. There is little