The Lady and the Emperor: The Dramatic Life and Death of Poppaea Sabina

Theatrics and excesses seem to run in the family of Nero, the emperor of Rome – that is, according to ancient authors such as Tacitus and Suetonius. Nero’s grandfather, Lucius Domitius Ahenobarbus, once staged a gladiatorial contest with such savagery that Emperor Augustus was forced to release an edict to restrain his excesses. Nero’s father, Gnaeus Domitius Ahenobarbus, murdered a boy, deceived bankers, and was charged with treason and incest. Seemingly preparing the public for the next generation of the Ahenobarbus family, Nero’s father allegedly stated shortly after Nero’s birth that any son born of Agrippina (Nero’s mother) and himself would be an abomination and a public nuisance.

In his chronicle of the emperor’s life, Suetonius portrays Nero as the consummate performer, playing roles both on and off stage until the Roman empire seemingly becomes a theatrical background and his principate a magnificent, yet tragic, opera. Not allowing status, gender, or species to stand in the way of a good role, Nero’s repertoire is impressively diverse. Not shy in staging and performing his own theatrical shows, the emperor plays heroes and heroines on stage, as well as gods and goddesses such as Niobe, Canace, Orestes, Oedipus, and Hercules. Off stage, Nero dressed himself in a cap or wig for nightly outings to beat or stab men on the streets after dark. He was also the groom in a marriage to the castrated boy Sporus, and the virginal bride to his freedman Doryphorus. Not surprisingly, Suetonius claims that Nero frequently confused role-playing and governance, going as far as to claim that, after the death of his wife Poppaea Sabina, he had Poppaea’s son, his stepson Rufrius Crispinus, drowned by the boy’s own slaves because he enjoys role-playing as a general and an emperor. Apparently, Nero was frightened that the child’s play-acting would become a reality.

A bust of Poppaea Sabina, wife of Nero.A bust of Poppaea Sabina, wife of Nero. (Richard Mortel / CC BY-SA 2.0)

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Top image: Saint Paul, surprised by Nero at the moment of converting Sabina Poppaea by Isidoro Lozano ca. 1858.      Source: Public Domain

By Martini Fisher