Poppaea

Billon tetradrachm from Alexandria, Nero AD 54 - 68

Poppaea Sabina the Younger (c. AD 31-65) was the daughter of Titus Ollius and Poppaea Sabina the Elder (ob. AD 47). Poppaea was born in Pompeii and assumed the name of her maternal grandfather Gaius Poppaeus Sabinus. She first married Rufrius Crispinus in AD 44, then Otho in AD 58. Poppaea inherited her mother's beauty and talent for political intrigue. According to Tacitus, Poppaea became the mistress of Nero, whom she persuaded to have his mother Agrippina murdered; then to divorce his first wife Claudia Octavia; and eventually procured the latter's exile to Pandateria and her final execution. Poppaea was subsequently married to Nero in AD 62 and thus became empress. She had a daughter Claudia Augusta by Nero. In AD 65, allegedly after Nero, in a display of temper had kicked his pregnant wife in the abdomen, Poppaea died, probably after a miscarriage. She was given a state funeral.

The reverse of this tetradrachm shows the empress Poppaea as an elegantly draped, self-assured and determined young woman. She is depicted with a deceptively simple hairstyle, from which a loose tendril escapes a "pony-tail" of bound hair at the back of her elegant, long neck. The coin is dated AD 64 (LIA = year 11).
The legend, Poppaea Sebaste, refers to Poppaea as empress:

Obv. Radiate head of Nero right.


Imperial
Empresses