Donkey milk knowledge archive · Historical source

Pliny the Elder on Poppaea Sabina and donkey milk in beauty care

Around AD 77, Pliny reports that Nero’s wife Poppaea took 500 she-asses with her and bathed in their milk. He also reproduces the opinion that donkey milk smooths the skin of the face.

Historical account: The information reproduced here reflects the knowledge of its time. It is not scientifically substantiated, is not a recommendation and cannot be applied to today. Donkey milk is a food, not a remedy.
c. AD 77Roman EmpireAncient natural history
Author
Pliny the Elder (Gaius Plinius Secundus)
Work
Naturalis historia
Passage
Book 11, § 238 (ch. 96) and Book 28, § 183 (ch. 50)
Time & place
c. AD 77 · Roman Empire
Type of source
Ancient natural history

In the original words

What the original says

Poppaea certe, Domiti Neronis coniunx, quingentas per omnia secum fetas trahens, balnearum etiam solio totum corpus illo lacte macerabat, extendi quoque cutem credens.

At any rate, Poppaea, the wife of Domitius Nero, took five hundred nursing she-asses with her everywhere and even soaked her whole body in this milk in the bathtub, believing that it also tightened the skin.

LatinNH 11.238

Cutem in facie erugari et tenerescere candore lacte asinino putant.

It is believed that donkey milk makes the skin of the face free of wrinkles and tender with a fair complexion.

LatinNH 28.183 (Mayhoff text)

English rendering: our own translation by the DON DONKEY’S editorial team, following the sense of the text.

Background

Who, when, what kind of text

Gaius Plinius Secundus (AD 23/24–79) was a Roman officer, administrator and scholar. He dedicated his “Naturalis historia” in 37 books to the future emperor Titus in AD 77. It is a compendium of knowledge which, by his own account, was compiled from thousands of individual statements by older authors.

Poppaea Sabina was the wife of Emperor Nero from AD 62 and died in AD 65. Pliny was therefore writing only a few decades after her death, at a time when her lavishness was still widely known in Rome.

The two passages appear in different contexts: Book 11 deals with milk as an animal product, Book 28 with remedies obtained from animals, here in the section on the face.

Content

What the source reports about donkey milk

In Book 11, Pliny first describes properties of various types of milk and then comes to donkey milk: it was credited with contributing something to women’s fair complexion. As evidence he cites Poppaea, who took five hundred she-asses with foals with her everywhere and bathed her whole body in their milk, believing that it made the skin firmer.

In Book 28 he takes up the subject again: it was believed that donkey milk made the skin of the face smoother and more tender, and some women moistened their cheeks with it according to a fixed ritual. Poppaea had introduced this custom, also prepared her baths in this way and was therefore accompanied by whole herds of she-asses.

Pliny phrases this cautiously throughout: “it is believed” (putant), “it is assumed” (existimatur), “she believed” (credens). He reports a widespread opinion and a custom, not a finding he had verified.

At a glance

Figures & facts from the source

500she-asses Poppaea took with her according to NH 11.238
AD 65year of Poppaea Sabina’s death
AD 77dedication of the Naturalis historia to Titus
37books of the Naturalis historia

Critical assessment

How reliable is this source?

Contemporary but reporting source

Pliny wrote only a good ten years after Poppaea’s death. However, he reproduces a widespread story without saying where he got the number 500 from. The same number appears more than a century later in Cassius Dio.

Uncertain numbers in the transmission

The figures in this passage differ depending on the manuscript and edition. We therefore do not reproduce them in detail.

Belief rather than proof

Pliny himself marks the effect on the skin as an assumption. For antiquity, the passage documents a beauty practice of the Roman upper class, not a proven effect.

Today’s assessment

No statements about effects of donkey milk on the skin can be derived from the anecdote; such effects are not scientifically substantiated by this source.

Our assessment

These passages are the actual source of the well-known story of the donkey milk bath – and they concern Poppaea, not Cleopatra. We quote them as cultural history of Roman beauty care, without deriving any promises of effect from them.

References

Sources to check

More sources and studies in the research archive. Summarised by the DON DONKEY’S editorial team, as of November 2026.