Poppaea Sabina turning his 'loyal subjects' the Roman populace against him. (This form of murder may have been suggested to the screenwriters by Tacitus' claim that Nero had made several unsuccessful attempts at strangling his first wife, Octavia, when drunk.) Another portrayal of Poppaea is featured in the 1932 film "The Sign of the Cross". She is seen bathing in asses' milk. Daringly for the time, she is portrayed (by Claudette Colbert) as being openly bisexual, suggestively inviting a female slave to bathe with her in the asses' milk, but lusting after Roman soldier Marcus Superbus (Fredric March). In the 1976 BBC
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