Divorced, Murdered, Survived: Nero's Wives
The Ancients
History Hit
4.7 • 3.5K Ratings
🗓️ 30 June 2021
⏱️ 49 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
In the long tradition of categorising famous wives as the good or the bad, Nero’s partners are no exception. These women are regularly reduced to simple characters within the final Julio-Claudian Emperor’s orbit, but what of their own experiences and personalities? Lauren Ginsberg from Duke University speaks to Tristan in this episode to shine a light on the lives of Octavia, Poppaea and Statilia Messalina, and their fates at the hands of their husband.
This episode contains references to domestic abuse.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | It's the ancients on History Hit. |
| 0:05.4 | I'm Tristan Hughes your host. |
| 0:07.5 | And in today's podcast, well we are wrapping up our small mini series on the Emperor Nero, |
| 0:12.9 | the British Museum exhibition on this infamous Emperor from Ancient Rome while it's now |
| 0:17.3 | in full swing. |
| 0:19.0 | And today's episode, we're not going to be focusing in on Nero himself as it were. |
| 0:23.8 | We're going to be looking at certain women that surrounded this Emperor in particular, |
| 0:28.4 | his three wives. |
| 0:30.5 | Now to talk through these three wives and what we know about them and more, I was delighted |
| 0:35.0 | to get on the show, the wonderful speaker, the brilliant professor, that is Lauren Ginzberg |
| 0:40.9 | from Duke University in the United States. |
| 0:44.2 | Lauren has done a lot of work on the women that surrounded the Emperor Nero and in particular, |
| 0:48.6 | a lot of work on Nero's first wife Octavia. |
| 0:52.6 | We sometimes overlook Octavia with more focus put on Nero's second wife Poppea, but Octavia |
| 0:58.8 | as you're about to hear in this podcast was extremely popular with the Roman people. |
| 1:04.1 | She has an extraordinary story, so that further ado is Lauren. |
| 1:14.2 | Lauren, it is wonderful to have you on the podcast. |
| 1:16.7 | Thank you very much. |
| 1:17.5 | I'm happy to be here. |
| 1:18.8 | Now, we're talking about Nero, another topic on Nero, but this time we're really focusing |
| 1:22.6 | in on Nero's wives because Lauren, I think it's fair to say that Nero's relationships |
| 1:26.4 | with women, they become infamous and this is no less true when focusing in on his wives |
... |
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