[289] _Poppæana._ "Cosmetics used or invented by Poppæa Sabina," of whom Tacitus says, "Huic mulieri cuncta alia fuere præter honestum animum," Ann., xiii., 45. She was of surpassing beauty and insatiable ambition: married first to Rufus Crispinus, a knight whom she quitted for Otho. Nero became enamored of her, and sent Otho into Lusitania, where he remained ten years. (Cf. Suet., Otho, 3. Clinton, F. R., a. 58.) Four years after he put away Octavia, banished her to Pandataria, and forced her to make away with herself, and her head was brought to Rome to be gazed upon by Poppæa, whom he had now married, A.D. 62. Cf. Tac., Ann., xiv., 64. Poppæa bore him a child next year, whom he called Augusta, but she died before she was four months old, to his excessive grief. Cf. xv., 23. Three years after, "Poppæa mortem obiit, fortuitâ mariti iracundiâ, à quo gravida ictu calcis adflicta est." Nero, it is remarkable, died on the same day of the month as the unfortunate Octavia. [290] _Lacte._ The old Schol. says _Poppæa_ was banished, and took with her fifty she-asses to furnish milk for her bath. The story of her exile is very problematical, as Heinrich shows, and is probably only an ordinary hyperbole. Pliny says (xxviii., 12; xi., 41) that asses' milk is supposed to make the face tender, and delicately white, and to prevent wrinkles. "Unde Poppæa uxor Neronis, quocunque ire contigisset secum sexcentas asellas ducebat." ὄνους πεντακοσίας ἀρτιτόκους. Xiph., lxii., 28. [291] _Facies._ "Can it be call'd a face, so poulticed o'er? By heavens, an ulcer it resembles more!" Hodgson. "But tell me yet, this thing thus daub'd and oil'd, Thus poulticed, plaster'd, baked by turns and boil'd; Thus with pomatums, ointments, lackered o'er, Is it a face, Ursidius, or a sore?" Gifford. [292] _Frangit._ Cf. viii., 247, "Nodosam post hæc frangebat vertice vitem." The climax here is not correctly observed, according to Horace. "Ne scuticâ dignum horribili sectere flagello: Nam, ut ferula cædas meritum majora subire Verbera non vereor." I., Sat. iii., 119. The _scutica_ was probably like the "taurea:" the "cowskin" of the American slave States. [293] _Diurnum._ "The diary of the household expenses." _Relegit_ marks the deliberate cruelty of the lady. "Beats while she paints her face, surveys her gown, Casts up the day's accounts, and still beats on." Dryden. [294] _Isiacæ._ Cf. ix., 22, "Fanum Isidis.... Notior Aufidio mœchus celebrare solebas." [295] _Emerita._ From the soldier who has served his time and become "emeritus." [296] _Ædificat._ "So high she builds her head, she seems to be, View her in front, a tall Andromache; But walk all round her, and you'll quickly find She's not so great a personage behind!" Hodgson. [297] _Pygmæâ._