Editing Nero (section)

===Matricide===
[[Image:Nero and Poppaea Sabina.jpg|thumb|Coin of Nero and [[Poppaea Sabina]] Billon tetradrachm of Alexandria, Egypt, 25 mm, 12.51 gr. Obverse: radiate head right; ΝΕΡΩ. ΚΛΑΥ. ΚΑΙΣ. ΣΕΒ. ΓΕΡ. ΑΥ. Reverse: draped bust of Poppaea right; ΠΟΠΠΑΙΑ ΣΕΒΑΣΤΗ. Year LI = 10 = 63–64.]]According to [[Suetonius]], Nero had his former freedman [[Anicetus (freedman)|Anicetus]] arrange a shipwreck, which Agrippina managed to survive. She then swam ashore and was executed by Anicetus, who reported her death as a suicide.{{sfn|Barrett|2010}}{{sfn|Suetonius, ''Nero''|loc=[https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Suetonius/12Caesars/Nero*.html#34 34]}} ''The Oxford Encyclopedia of Ancient Greece and Rome'' cautiously notes that Nero's reasons for killing his mother in AD 59 are "not fully understood".{{sfn|Barrett|2010}} According to [[Tacitus]], the source of conflict between Nero and his mother was Nero's affair with [[Poppaea Sabina]]. In ''[[Histories (Tacitus)|Histories]]'' Tacitus writes that the affair began while Poppaea was still married to [[Rufrius Crispinus]], but in his later work ''[[Annals (Tacitus)|Annals]]'' Tacitus says Poppaea was married to [[Otho]] when the affair began.{{sfn|Barrett|Fantham|Yardley|2016|p=214}} In ''Annals'' Tacitus writes that Agrippina opposed Nero's affair with Poppaea because of her affection for his wife [[Claudia Octavia|Octavia]]. [[Anthony A. Barrett]] writes that Tacitus' account in ''Annals'' "suggests that Poppaea's challenge drove [Nero] over the brink".{{sfn|Barrett|Fantham|Yardley|2016|p=215}} A number of modern historians have noted that Agrippina's death would not have offered much advantage for Poppaea, as Nero did not marry Poppaea until AD 62.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Dawson |first=Alexis |date=1969 |title=Whatever Happened to Lady Agrippina? |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/3296108 |journal=The Classical Journal |volume=64 |issue=6 |pages=253–267 |jstor=3296108 |issn=0009-8353}}</ref>{{sfn|Barrett|Fantham|Yardley|2016|p=215}} Barrett writes that Poppaea seems to serve as a "literary device, utilized [by Tacitus] because [he] could see no plausible explanation for Nero's conduct and also incidentally [served] to show that Nero, like Claudius, had fallen under the malign influence of a woman."{{sfn|Barrett|Fantham|Yardley|2016|p=215}}