Poppaea Sabina that it is not a drama that promotes the triumph of virtue. Poppaea is portrayed as cynically plotting to become empress of Rome by manipulating the emperor Nero into marrying her, and her machinations include the execution of Seneca the Younger, who opposes her plans, which are successful at the end of the drama. Poppaea is a principal character also in Handel's opera "Agrippina" of 1709, but as a victim, not a perpetrator, of deceit and manipulation. Here the schemer is Agrippina, Nero's mother, intent on promoting her son's claim to the throne. Poppaea, the ingenue, is portrayed as the
Sabina of Bavaria Sabina of Bavaria Sabina of Bavaria-Munich (24 April 1492 – 30 August 1564) was Duchess consort of Württemberg by marriage to Ulrich, Duke of Württemberg. Sabina was the daughter of Albert IV, Duke of Bavaria and his wife Kunigunde of Austria, daughter of Frederick III, Holy Roman Emperor and Leonor of Portugal. Sabina was promised at the age of six years for strategic reasons by her uncle, King Maximilian I, to Ulrich of Württemberg to whom she was married 15 years later. This marriage was unhappy because of Ultich's tendency to violence, so that Sabina was ultimately forced to flee