Poppaea Sabina

But he cannot have failed during his stay in the city on the eve of the Neronian persecution to become acquainted, if not with the work of the apostle, at least with the existence of the Christian community.

Through the influence of Poppaea, the mistress and afterwards wife of Nero, who coquetted with Judaism, Josephus' words imply that she was a proselyte.

He was successful in obtaining the release of the priests and returned to Judea laden with presents.

Besides the expressed object, was there any ulterior motive in his visit to the capital? Edersheim suggests that, foreseeing the trend of events, Josephus was already fired with the ambition of becoming the intermediary between Rome and his nation.

About daybreak, through God's good providence, we sighted a ship of Cyrene, and I and certain others, about eighty in number, outstripped the others and were taken on board.

Landing safely at Dicaarchia, which the Italians call Puccioli, I became on friendly terms with Aloturus, an actor who was a special favourite of Nero and of Jewish origin.

Through him I became known to Poppaea, Caesar's wife, and took the earliest opportunity of soliciting her aid to secure the liberation of the priests.

In addition to this kind service, I received large gifts from Poppaea, and so returned to my country.

since she first came onto the scene.

I remember seeing a video of her singing Poppea in concert, I don't know, like 10, 15 years ago, and just falling in love with her tone and her stage presence.

And yeah, her career has really, you know, blossomed.

And she made her Met debut last year.

For example, in a dispute over the size of a building that was wanted to be erected by Roman officials that would overlook the temple courtyard, he ruled in favor of the Jewish population and said that such a building would be inappropriate in the holy city of Jerusalem.

His wife, Poppaea, was actually very pro-Jewish.

We have interesting references to her in the work of Josephus as well, very positive and complimentary ones, and perhaps she had a major role in influencing him in this direction.

And in fact, the Gemara in Gittin on Daf Nun Vav Amin Alif has an even more fascinating possibility with regards to Nero's connection to Jews, but I'm going to leave that until, God willing, we get to Gittin and we can speak a little bit more about his biography.

He's one of Nero's hangers-on.

And he was married to Nero's wife, Poppea.

And there's a bit of a dubiousness about it.

They have a bit of a free sermon, what happened.

Nero was 22.

This time, the object of his affections wasn't a slave girl, but a member of the aristocracy called Poppaea.

Nero was of course married to Octavia, the princess who'd given him his passport to one half of the imperial line.

Poppea started pressuring Nero to get divorced.

With this unforgivable act of murder, Nero had crossed the line into tyranny and there was no going back.

Nero's reign as emperor had started with great acclaim, but by the age of 22, power had already corrupted him.

He'd murdered his mother so he could divorce his wife, Octavia, and marry his mistress, Poppaea.

But Octavia was still a woman of influence in Rome, with all the clout of the royal family.