A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology

1. A woman in the reign of Nero, who obtained an infamous notoriety as the murderer of her own children (Juv. 6.638, &c. ; Martial, 2.34, 4.42. 5.) The scholiast on Juvenal states that she was the wife of P. (C.?) Petronius who was condemned as one of the conspirators against Nero; that having been convicted, after her husband's death, of destroying her own children by poison, she partook of a sumptuous banquet, and then put an end to her life by opening her veins. In an inscription published by Gruter (p. 921. 6), recording this act of villany, she is called the daughter of T. Pontius; but we may, with Heinrich (ad Juv. l.c.), question the genuineness of this inscription, as it was probably manufactured out of this passage of Juvenal.