 It was Sporus, and not his wife Messalina, to whom Nero turned as he began the ritual lamentations before taking his own life.Soon afterward, Sporus was taken to the care of the Praetorian prefect Nymphidius Sabinus, who had persuaded the Praetorian Guard to desert Nero.Nymphidius treated Sporus as a wife and called him "Poppaea".