Poppea

Poppaea Sabina
Bust of Poppaea Sabina at Palazzo Massimi alle Terme
Empress consort of the Roman Empire
Tenure	AD 62 – AD 65
Born	AD 30 Pompeii
Died	AD 65 (age 35) Rome
Burial	Mausoleum of Augustus, Rome
Spouse	Rufrius Crispinus Otho Nero
Issue	Rufrius Crispinus Claudia Augusta
Full name Until AD 63: Poppaea Sabina the Younger After AD 63: Poppaea Augusta Sabina
House	Julio-Claudian Dynasty (by marriage)
Father	Titus Ollius
Mother	Poppaea Sabina the Elder

Poppaea Sabina (AD 30 – AD 65)—known as Poppaea Sabina the Younger (to differentiate her from her mother) and, after AD 63, as Poppaea Augusta Sabina—was a Roman Empress as the second wife of the Emperor Nero. She had also been wife to the future Emperor Otho. The historians of antiquity describe her as a beautiful woman who used intrigues to become empress.

Poppaea Sabina the Younger was born in Pompeii in AD 30 as the daughter of Titus Ollius and Poppaea Sabina the Elder. Most evidence suggesting Poppaea's Pompeiian origins comes from the 20th century excavations of the town, destroyed in the 79 AD eruption of Mount Vesuvius. For instance, legal documents found during excavations in nearby Herculaneum described her as being the owner of a brick- or tile-work business in the Pompeii area. It is very likely that Poppaea's family came from Pompeii, and the common belief is that they might have been the owners of the House of the Menander (a house in Pompeii named for the painting of the 4th century BC playwright Menander that is found there).

Titus Ollius was a quaestor in the reign of the Emperor Tiberius. Ollius' friendship with the infamous Imperial palace guardsman Lucius Aelius Sejanus ruined him, before gaining public office. Titus Ollius was from Picenum (modern Marche and Abruzzo, Italy) and he was an unknown minor character in Imperial politics. Titus Ollius died in 31.

Poppaea Sabina the Elder, her mother, was a distinguished woman, whom Tacitus praises as wealthy and "the loveliest woman of her day". In 47, she committed suicide as an innocent victim of the intrigues of the Roman Empress Valeria Messalina, having been charged with having committed adultery with former consul Decimus Valerius Asiaticus.