Nero’s Spouses

Welcome back to Myths & Mischief! This is your Lovable Lord of Lore, today’s mischievous myth is about revisiting the Roman emperor Nero and his 6 spouses.

(Wife 1, Spouse 1, Claudia Octavia)

(Wife 2, Spouse 2, Poppaea)

He had his mother killed. Then he had his first wife, Claudia Octavia killed. That was followed by the beating of his second pregnant wife, Poppaea to death, and the assassination of her step-brother, Britannicus. This gave him control of the empire without the limitations of tradition and restrictions. What happened to Nero’s third wife, or his other marriages?

(Spouse 3, Doryphoros)

(Husband 1, Spouse 4, Pythagoras)

Nero’s third marriage was to a freedman named Doryphoros in the same year that he had his first wife killed and marrying his second wife Poppaea before kicking her to death while pregnant. His next marriage was to Pythagoras, another freedman where Nero took the role of the bride. This was followed by the marriage to his third female wife, Statilia Messalina, after convincing her husband to commit suicide, (She outlived the emperor thanks to her family’s connections). Shortly after their marriage, he brought her on a tour of Greece. On the tour, he met a slave named Sporus who is believed to resemble his second wife Poppaea. He had the boy castrated, and married him with Sporus taking on the role of the bride. In public he was introduced as Poppaea, dressed in an empress’s regalia and referred to as his wife.

(Wife 3, Spouse 5, Statilia Messalina)

Even in Roman times, most people would consider marrying 3 women and 3 men to be abnormal, but Nero took it to a new level of depravity. The Romans portrayed the marriage between Nero and Sporus as an abomination. He was also accused of raping a Vestal Virgin and committing incest with his mother.

(Spouse 6, Sporus)

The notion of gender and sexuality in ancient Rome has been formed by the Bacchanalian orgies that are found in movies or through the abuse of women and slaves. Homosexuality in ancient Rome had acceptable guidelines. There was a tolerance of homosexual relationships provided that the dominant role be practiced by the person of higher standing since sexuality was considered an extension of power and dominance rather than strict definitions of a binary sexuality that is promoted through conservatives in America.

Nero challenged the accepted norm for several things during his rule. Other than killing his first two wives, taking the bride role in his marriage with Pythagoras. His introduction of a slave as his wife, as he did with Sporus, and to a lesser degree taking on the role of a performer where entertainers were free to be in any relationship since their status would have been stripped from them as they entered that line of work.

According to Greek historian Polybus, for a freeborn Roman man to enter into a submissive sexual relationship with another freeborn Roman man would have been emasculating, shameful and, dangerous. He went on to explain that the punishment for a Roman soldier who willingly submitted to penetration by another freeborn man was “fustuarium,” or being cudgelled to death. These types of relationships did happen, but they were held in secret to avoid punishment.

Before Nero’s exile, Sporus gifted him a ring bearing a gemstone depicting the Rape of Proserpina which was later seen as a bad omen for the emperor. Most people would recognize the depiction as the abduction of Persephone by Hades from Greek mythology. The ring is significant because it is the only evidence of how Sporus felt about Nero, and his position in general. It is unknown if he was a homosexual in the modern definition of the word and his only mention in history was in relation to relationships with powerful men which he was in.

After Nero was exiled and committed suicide by Sporus’s side, his spouses were left to fend for themselves. His wife, Statilia Messalina was able to use her family’s clout to reintegrate into society. Sporus had a much harder road to travel. After Nero’s death, Sporus was taken in by a Praetorian prefect named Nymphidius Sabinus. He had convinced the Praetorian Guard to desert Nero and treated Sporus as a wife. He called him by the name of Nero’s second wife, “Poppaea.” Nymphidius Sabinus tried become the new emperor before being killed by his own guard.

In less than a year, Sporus became involved with Otho, the second of 4 emperors who attempted to gain power and were killed. Otho had once been married to Poppaea, until Nero had forced their divorce. Ortho’s reign only lasted for 3 months before he lost the Battle of Bedriacum and took his own life. The victor in that battle, Vitellius made plans to provide a public spectacle, depicting Sporus as Proserpina in a reenactment of the Rape of Proserpina in a gladiator arena. Rather than be subjugated to that spectacle, Sporus took his own life.

For as audacious and unusual as Nero was, most consider him as the 2nd most depraved emperor of Rome with Caligula taking those honors.

That’s it for this week’s installment, this is your Lord of the Lore signing off.

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