Young woman with long red hair sitting on a chair, surrounded by white roses. She is wearing a white tunic and combing her hair with the right hand, while holding a mirror with the left.
Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Lady Lilith (1866–1868) — Wikimedia Commons

Red-Haired Roman Femme Fatale: Poppaea Sabina

Sex, scandal, and the fiery-haired woman who rewrote Roman history

Giulia Montanari
Published in
7 min readOct 20, 2023

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It was 62 AD and for the first, and perhaps the only time in his life, Lucius Domitius Ahenobarbus — Nero for short — was happy.

He had just married his second wife, Poppaea Sabina, and theirs seemed like a great love match. For some time he even…

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Giulia Montanari
Exploring History

Thirty-something public servant in Italy. Can’t parallel park to save my life. Join Medium with my referral link: https://medium.com/@tanarx/membership