Roma Numismatics Ltd
E-Sale 97 26 May 2022
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Nero AV Aureus. Rome, AD 64-65. NERO CAESAR AVGVSTVS, laureate head to right / AVGVSTVS AVGVSTA, on left, Nero, radiate and togate, standing to left, holding patera and sceptre; on right, Poppaea Sabina, veiled and draped, standing to left, holding patera and cornucopiae. RIC I 44; BMCRE 52-3; BN 199-200; Biaggi 220; Calicó 401. 7.10g, 19mm, 6h.
Near Very Fine.
From the collection of Z.P., Austria.
According to the accounts of Plutarch and Suetonius, Nero became enamoured by Poppaea Sabina, the wife of Otho, a courtier and close friend of the emperor around AD 59. The two were divorced, and Otho was given the position of governor of Lusitania and ordered to relocate to Hispania. Tacitus claims that soon after the divorce, Poppaea pressured Nero to murder his mother Agrippina, and divorce and execute his first wife Claudia Octavia, with whom he had no children. Nero indeed divorced Octavia, claiming she was barren, and imprisoned her on the island of Pandateria on the charge of adultery. Poppaea became Nero's second wife in AD 62 and bore him a daughter, Claudia Augusta, in January the following year.
Suetonius claims that Poppaea was expecting another child in AD 65, when she was kicked to death by the emperor (Life of Nero, 35.3). Both Cassius Dio and Tacitus support the claim that Nero killed his wife, though the bias of all three historians against Nero casts doubt over the reliability of their accounts. Indeed, Poppaea may have died of natural causes perhaps related to childbirth, a theory supported by the bestowal of divine honours upon her after her death, and the state funeral that she was afforded.
Near Very Fine.
From the collection of Z.P., Austria.
According to the accounts of Plutarch and Suetonius, Nero became enamoured by Poppaea Sabina, the wife of Otho, a courtier and close friend of the emperor around AD 59. The two were divorced, and Otho was given the position of governor of Lusitania and ordered to relocate to Hispania. Tacitus claims that soon after the divorce, Poppaea pressured Nero to murder his mother Agrippina, and divorce and execute his first wife Claudia Octavia, with whom he had no children. Nero indeed divorced Octavia, claiming she was barren, and imprisoned her on the island of Pandateria on the charge of adultery. Poppaea became Nero's second wife in AD 62 and bore him a daughter, Claudia Augusta, in January the following year.
Suetonius claims that Poppaea was expecting another child in AD 65, when she was kicked to death by the emperor (Life of Nero, 35.3). Both Cassius Dio and Tacitus support the claim that Nero killed his wife, though the bias of all three historians against Nero casts doubt over the reliability of their accounts. Indeed, Poppaea may have died of natural causes perhaps related to childbirth, a theory supported by the bestowal of divine honours upon her after her death, and the state funeral that she was afforded.