Does This Taste Poisoned?
A short history of food tasters
In a royal family full of weirdos or worse, the Roman emperor Claudius was, by most accounts, a smart and capable ruler. Elevated to the throne by the army after they assassinated his unstable predecessor, Caligula, he stabilized the empire during his 13 years in power. During his time in office, he reformed the empire’s bureaucracy, added to Rome’s network of aqueducts and roads, and conquered parts of Britain.
Claudius’ capable leadership didn’t keep him from the fate that awaited so many of his fellow emperors. According to most of the ancient sources, he was murdered — poisoned, in fact, with a tainted mushroom.
Who killed Claudius? The ancient historians tell us several different stories about his death. Cassius Dio tells us that Claudius’ wife, Agrippina, killed him to secure the throne for her teenage son, Nero:
She sent for a famous dealer in poisons, a woman named Lucusta, who had recently been convicted on this very charge; and preparing with her aid a poison whose effect was sure, she put it in one of the vegetables called mushrooms. Then she herself ate of the others, but made her husband eat of the one which contained the poison; for it was the p31 largest and finest of them.
And so the victim of the plot was carried from the banquet…
