Poppaea Sabina Cassius Dio, Sporus bore an uncanny resemblance to Sabina, and Nero even called him by his dead wife’s name. According to Cassius Dio, Poppaea enjoyed having milk baths. She would have them daily because she was once told "therein lurked a magic which would dispel all diseases and blights from her beauty." Fifteen centuries after her time, Poppaea was depicted in Claudio Monteverdi's last opera "L'incoronazione di Poppea" ("The coronation of Poppaea") of 1642. Her story clearly was chosen to appeal to the titillation favored in the nascent culture of the Venetian public opera theaters, and its prologue immediately explains
Poppaea Sabina the Elder committed suicide following Sejanus' downfall; by Ollius she had her daughter the future empress. After Ollius' death she married Publius Cornelius Lentulus Scipio, consul in 24; Scipio had by a previous marriage Publius Cornelius Lentulus Scipio the Younger, consul in 56; with Poppaea Sabina the Elder they had a son, Publius Cornelius Scipio Asiaticus, suffect consul in 68. Her downfall came in the reign of the emperor Claudius. His wife, Messalina, desired to possess the Gardens of Lucullus which was owned by Decimus Valerius Asiaticus, consul in the years 35 and again in 46. Based on the gossip that Poppaea