She was the wife of Aulus Plautius, the general who led the Roman conquest of Britain in 43 AD, and was renowned as one of the few people who dared to publicly mourn the death of a kinswoman (Julia Livia, granddaughter of emperor Tiberius) killed by the Imperial family.
[1] Graecinus' wife was Asinia, sister of Gaius Asinius Pollio,[citation needed] and through her Pomponia was related to the Imperial family.
Asinia's father, Gaius Asinius Gallus, was consul in 8 BC, and her mother Vipsania, was the daughter of the general and politician Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa.
According to Tacitus, Pomponia lived a long, unhappy life, possibly as a result of her son's murder and the deaths of several relatives associated with the Imperial family.
[8] Pomponia Graecina and her husband Aulus Plautius are informal adoptive parents of Ligia, the heroine of Henryk Sienkiewicz's 1895 historical novel Quo Vadis.
In the story, Pomponia and her two children are captured and held hostage by Druids resisting the Roman invasion of Britain, while a rescue is attempted by the series' two main characters.