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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;kevin McGonigal, post: 4500982, member: 72790&quot;]That&#039;s a fair objection. Most folks here realize that much of what we know about the emperors comes from the three historians, Tacitus, Suetonius and Dio Cassius. They all tell a good story but their anti emperor bias needs to be taken into account. If one believes their biographies to be accurate, then the Nero kicking a pregnant Poppaea to death is quite plausible. Well not quite. The kicking to death story as popular literature is actually found only in Suetonius. Tacitus mentions it as a possibility (maybe he poisoned her) as does Dio, who wrote well over a century after her death. There is no shortage of histories of Rome that tell of her death from the Suetonius account. Going through my own library (I prefer printed to on-line sources) I found&nbsp; two different ancient history encyclopedias, a &quot;dark history&quot; of Rome and a history of early Rome up to Nero. Sure enough they tell the Suetonius story. I only have two biographies of Nero as the main topic. </p><p><br /></p><p>The first is Nero, The End of Dynasty by Miriam T. Griffin, where the death of Poppaea is covered on pp.168-170. where she discusses the wide spread belief at that time that her miscarriage and death were caused by Nero&#039;s kick. She expresses doubt about its accuracy based on Nero&#039;s apparent real grief and the elaborate funeral she was given. That of course is a judgement call by that author. That perhaps his grief was caused by an attack of conscience is also a possibility. The second biography I have is, Nero,The Man Behind the Myth by Richard Holland where on pp. 195 and 196 he discusses her death. The author cites the relevant portions of Tacitus, Suetonius and Dio Cassius. He strongly concludes that the rumor that spread that Nero had killed Poppaea has no merit and that Nero really loved her and sincerely grieved over her death. Maybe.</p><p><br /></p><p>Knowing how much emperors like Nero were despised by the traditionalist Roman historians and their tendency to treat rumor as established fact and their pulp fiction quality of sensationalism I am hesitant to accept the story. If I were writing a biography of Nero, I would mention the story, but point out that its veracity is questioned. Absent a contemporary (and suicidal) eye witness account of such a murder I would question the story&#039;s accuracy.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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