Poppée

Poppée ( Poppaea Sabina ) (v. 30 - 65) is the second wife of the Roman Emperor Néron.

Except for Flavius Josèphe, the historians of the Antiquité find to him few qualities apart from its beauty and underline its intrigues to become empress.

Fifteen centuries later, Claudio Monteverdi represented it under a light more favorable in its last opera, the incoronazione di Poppea , underlining its love for Néron.

Biography

Family origins

The Gens Poppaea is a rich person family pompéienne. The villa found in 1964 on the site of Oplontis at the time of the archaeological excavations of Torre Annunziata would have belonged to Poppée.

Poppaea Sabina is the girl of Titus Ollius, a questeur of the reign of the emperor Tibère that its friendship with Séjan ruined before it obtains a public office. Originating in the province of Picenium (current Steps), it occupies a minor role in the policy of the Empire and is little known.

His/her mother, also called Poppaea Sabina, is on the other hand a distinguished woman, whose ancient sources describe the copious beauty and the big class. Tacite describes it like one of the most pleasant women of its time. It commits suicide in 47, victim innocent of the intrigues of the empress Messaline.

With died of his/her father in 31, his/her mother remarie with Publius Cornelius Lentulus Scipio (I), which was used in quality of commander as division in 22, as consul in 24 then as senator. Publius Cornelius Lentulus Scipio (II) is probably the half-brother of Poppée. He was consul in 56 then also senator.

The maternal grandfather of Poppée, Gaius Poppaeus Sabinus, man of humble birth, was consul in 9. He is at the origin in particular of a law with aiming natalist, the Lex Papia Poppaea. During the reign of Tibère it is honoured by a fine Triomphe military to have put at a revolt in Thrace in 26. Of 15 to its death it is used in quality as imperial proconsul in Greece and in other provinces. This qualified administrator enjoyed the friendship of the imperial family. He dies in 35. Poppée will take its name after its death.

Marriage with Rufrius Crispinus

In 44, Poppaea Sabina marries Rufrius Crispinus, a member of the equestrian order, chief of the Praetorian guarde during the reign of the emperor Claude. In 51, Agrippine, then wife of Claude and empress, dislocates it her load because there remains faithful to the memory of Messaline and that he supports his children Octavie and Britannicus. It is replaced by Sectus Afranius Burrus and will be carried out thereafter. Poppée gave him a son of the same name which, after the death of his/her mother, would have been drowned at the time of a fishing party by the Néron emperor.

Marriage with Othon

She marries then Othon, friend of Néron, to perhaps only approach her true objective, the Néron emperor. After being become the mistress of this last, Poppée divorces Othon in 58 and devotes all its efforts to becoming empress of Rome. Othon is " promu" governor of Lusitanie. He will become briefly emperor ten year later, after the death of Néron, following Galba.

Empress after the marriage with néron

According to Tacit, Poppée is ambitious and without scruple. Agrippine, the mother of Néron, seeing the danger sought to persuade his/her son to release itself from it. This argument with Poppée was one of the reasons for which Néron killed finally his/her mother. Agrippine except plays, the influence of Poppée on the emperor became such as his pressure led Néron to divorce his first Octavie wife (then to make it carry out), with an aim of marrying Poppée in 62. Octavie, initially exiled Campanie is finally imprisoned on the island of Pandateria (place of banishment for the family members imperial fallen in disgrace), on the charge of adultery. According to certain eclesiastic sources, it would be Poppée and not Néron which would have instigated persecutions against the Christians, with an aim of masking its misdeeds.

The historian Flavius Josèphe on the other hand, presents Poppée very different. He speaks about her as of a deeply religious woman (perhaps until proselytism) who pushed Néron to show compassion with regard to the Jewish people.

In 63, it gives rise to a girl, accommodated with an exuberant joy by Néron, Claudia Augusta, which dies four months later. With the birthday of Claudia, Néron honors the mother and the girl with the title of Augusta.

According to Suétone, Poppée is pregnant at the summer 65, when it receives from insane Néron of rage a mortal kick in the belly because it sharply reproached him for spending time too much to the plays. Many modern historians estimate that she died of the continuations of complications of her pregnancy. And, in fact, Néron is particularly afflicted by its death. The body of Poppée is not burned, it is embaumé with spices and is placed in the Mausolée of Auguste. Néron gives to his second wife national funeral. It does itself its panegyric and gives him the divine honors, provocant the dislike of those which hated it and remembered its cruelty and its immorality.

According to Dion Cassius, Poppée was due to perfection of its body at the point to wish to die before the irremediable one. It made milk each day five hundred she-asses which had just put low to bathe in their milk.

Representations of Poppée

Apart from the writings of the authors of antiquity, few traces of the famous beauty of Poppée arrived to us.

We have a Tétradrachme representing its draped bust associated with an erased head of Néron.

A marble bust is exposed to the Palazzo Massimo ale Terme of Rome.

The Musée of Louvre to Paris presents marble the bust of Pseudo-Poppée, a Roman work dated around 55-60 a. J. - C, portrait of an young woman, perhaps a high Eastern princess in Rome, identified a time, because of its beauty, like that of the empress.

An anonymous Master of the school of Fontainebleau of second half of the 16th century represented it on a table exposed to the museum of art and history of Geneva.

the incoronazione di Poppea , last made up opera in 1642 by Claudio Monteverdi, on a booklet of Gian Francesco Busenello, recalls its life under one day more favorable, underlining its love for Néron.

In May 2006, the director inhabitant of Zurich Christoph Marthaler created with the KunstenFESTIVALdesArts with Brussels, Winch Only, a part drawn from the opera of Monteverdi, on texts of the Flemish writer Hugo Claus. Paraphrasing Magritte: " This is not one… Poppea" , Marthaler retains opera of Monteverdi the crime, the hunger of being able and the thirst for destruction, infamies which become secret of family in her setting in scene.

Sources

dans its version of June 2nd, 2007

See too

the incoronazione di Poppea
Claudio Monteverdi
Néron
Oplontis

External bonds

Néron and Poppée on the site Noctes Gallicanae d' Alain Canu
Meeting of Néron and Poppée on the site empereurs-romains.net
Died of Poppée on the same site
Winch only of Christoph Marthaler on the site of the national theater of Strasbourg

Random links: