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) evidence of the Poppaei prior to the first century, but from inscriptions the family seems to have been concentrated in Campania. The surname "Sabinus" suggests that they claimed Sabine ancestry. The region of Campania where the greatest number of Poppaei are found was associated with the Samnites, an Oscan-speaking people who also claimed Sabine descent. The chief praenomina of the Poppaei were "Gaius" and "Quintus". A few of the family used other names, such as "Publius, Lucius, Sextus", and "Titus". All of these were common names throughout Roman history. Poppaea (gens) The gens Poppaea was a minor plebeian family at