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.

After Titus Ollius's death, Poppaea's mother married Publius Cornelius Lentulus Scipio the Elder, suffect consul, in 24 AD.

During their marriage, Poppaea gave birth to their son, a younger Rufrius Crispinus, who, after her death, would be drowned by Nero while on a fishing trip.

[8] Modern scholars, however, question the reliability of this story as Nero did not marry Poppaea until 62 AD[9] and point to Suetonius's dating of the divorce from Otho.

[citation needed] With Agrippina gone, Poppaea pressured Nero to divorce and later execute his first wife and stepsister, Claudia Octavia, in order to marry her.

Octavia was initially exiled to Campania before being imprisoned on the island of Pandateria, a common sentence for members of the imperial family who fell from favor because of a charge of adultery.

He calls Poppaea a worshipper of the God of Israel and writes that she urged Nero to show compassion to the Jewish people.

[11] Tacitus, on the other hand, places her death after the Quinquennial Neronia (in 65 AD) and claims Nero's kick was a "casual outburst".

[13] Modern historians, though, keep in mind Suetonius's, Tacitus's, and Cassius Dio's severe biases against Nero, and hence recognize that Poppaea may have died due to complications of miscarriage or childbirth.

[16] Tacitus writes that Poppaea was embalmed by having her body filled with various herbs and spices and was buried in the Tomb of the Julii,[17] but her actual burial spot is unknown.

According to Cassius Dio, Sporus bore an uncanny resemblance to Poppaea, and Nero even called him by his dead wife's name.

Her story clearly was chosen to appeal to the titillation favoured in the nascent culture of the Venetian public opera theaters, and its prologue immediately explains that it is not a drama that promotes the triumph of virtue.

Poppaea is portrayed as cynically plotting to become empress of Rome by manipulating the emperor Nero into marrying her, and her machinations include the execution of Seneca the Younger, who opposes her plans, which are successful at the end of the drama.

Poppaea, the ingenue, is portrayed as the object of desire of Claudius, Nero, and Otho, each of whom served for a time as Roman Emperor, whose rivalries Agrippina attempts to leverage to her advantage.

Once Poppaea sees through Agrippina's deceit, she responds in kind, but only in order to be united with Otho, portrayed as her one true love.

Daringly for the time, she is portrayed (by Claudette Colbert) as being openly bisexual, suggestively inviting a female companion to bathe with her, but lusting after Roman soldier Marcus Superbus (Fredric March).

In this interpretation, she is kicked to death by Nero after offhandedly and uncritically mentioning a minor glitch during his performance at the Quinquennial Neronia.

In Mel Brooks' 1968 film The Producers, Leo Bloom (Gene Wilder) is terrified by Max Bialystock (Zero Mostel) when the large man stands over him, and — in reference to Cassius Dio's account of Poppaea's death — screams: "You're going to jump on me.

The Gothic metal band Theatre of Tragedy wrote a song titled "Poppæa", inspired by her story, on their myth-based album Aégis.