WEBVTT - Locusta: Ancient Assassin-for-Hire 0:00:00.160 --> 0:00:03.800 Welcome to Criminalia, a production of Shonda Land Audio in 0:00:03.880 --> 0:00:10.600 partnership with I Heart Radio. Hello, and welcome to Criminalia. 0:00:10.800 --> 0:00:13.600 This season, we're exploring the lives and motivations of some 0:00:13.640 --> 0:00:17.280 of the most notorious lady poisoners in history. I'm Holly 0:00:17.320 --> 0:00:20.680 Frying and I'm Mariach from Marquis. If you've been a 0:00:20.680 --> 0:00:24.360 listener this season, you may agree with the following assessment. 0:00:25.040 --> 0:00:29.040 Modern scholars generally agree that the Victorian era was kind 0:00:29.080 --> 0:00:32.680 of the heyday for poisoners. There were many poisons to 0:00:32.760 --> 0:00:35.120 choose from then, and I mean there still are today, 0:00:35.159 --> 0:00:38.080 but at that time, arsenic was the poison of choice, 0:00:38.320 --> 0:00:42.080 primarily because it was really easy to get. Plus it 0:00:42.159 --> 0:00:44.880 was tasteless and it was odorless, so it's really easy 0:00:44.880 --> 0:00:47.480 to hide as well, And these are all good things 0:00:47.479 --> 0:00:51.640 when you're assessing poisons. Arsenic is, as we've mentioned before, 0:00:51.800 --> 0:00:55.280 naturally occurring, but in terms of human knowledge of it, 0:00:55.280 --> 0:00:58.120 it's been around since about twelve fifty, when a German 0:00:58.160 --> 0:01:02.600 scholar named Albertus Magnus is credited with discovering it, although 0:01:02.680 --> 0:01:05.200 we also probably want to air quote the word discover 0:01:05.400 --> 0:01:09.120 since arsenic was surely used before Albertas put his name 0:01:09.160 --> 0:01:11.679 on it, right, But he put his name on it first. 0:01:20.000 --> 0:01:22.680 This was a time when there were very few rules 0:01:22.680 --> 0:01:26.200 about how one might acquire a poison, and there were 0:01:26.240 --> 0:01:30.040 even fewer rules about who might acquire a poison. And 0:01:30.200 --> 0:01:33.080 some of the world's most infamous poisoners seemed to come 0:01:33.200 --> 0:01:37.480 from the Victorian era. But let's be super clear here, 0:01:37.560 --> 0:01:42.959 poisonings were happening long before Victorian times. The very first 0:01:43.000 --> 0:01:47.160 person to commit homicide with poison lived probably at least 0:01:47.200 --> 0:01:53.280 modern scholars estimate about seventy thousand BC. Where they mail 0:01:53.640 --> 0:01:56.720 where they female? Was this to settle a score or 0:01:56.760 --> 0:02:00.280 maybe a hungry power play, It was so long ago 0:02:00.680 --> 0:02:05.720 we can only speculate on the circumstance. Interestingly, historians recently 0:02:05.760 --> 0:02:08.960 believed that they have found more substantial evidence of a 0:02:09.040 --> 0:02:13.280 tribe using poison tipped arrowheads on the African continent, and 0:02:13.360 --> 0:02:17.200 that very likely jumped from human poisoning animal to human 0:02:17.280 --> 0:02:20.960 poisoning human. But what we do know is that humans 0:02:21.000 --> 0:02:25.680 have been poisoning one another for a very very long time. Poisoning, too, 0:02:25.720 --> 0:02:29.640 has always been seen as a dramatic type of murder. 0:02:29.680 --> 0:02:35.079 It's been romanticized. It even makes its way into our entertainment, say, 0:02:35.120 --> 0:02:39.480 like Shakespeare, for instance, he writes several instances I believe 0:02:39.560 --> 0:02:43.000 seven actually of murder by poison in his works, and 0:02:43.160 --> 0:02:46.880 six of those poisonings, curiously are administered by a woman. 0:02:48.760 --> 0:02:52.920 In the sixteen hundreds, Jacobean dramatist John Fletcher, who followed 0:02:52.919 --> 0:02:59.360 in Shakespeare's footsteps, described poisoning as the coward's weapon. Well, 0:02:59.600 --> 0:03:02.160 I mean, you know, you don't have to be there 0:03:02.240 --> 0:03:05.239 for it. So but if you go all the way 0:03:05.280 --> 0:03:07.840 back I'm talking like back, back, back, back, back to 0:03:07.880 --> 0:03:11.079 the ancient Sumerians, which takes us back to like, you know, 0:03:13.160 --> 0:03:17.080 you'll find evidence that they too used plant toxins such 0:03:17.120 --> 0:03:20.639 as wolf spain, which we've we've talked a lot about 0:03:20.680 --> 0:03:23.040 in our episodes this season. Um, and they used it 0:03:23.040 --> 0:03:26.440 to poison the tips of their hunting arrows, also very 0:03:26.560 --> 0:03:29.040 likely used it to kill a person or two. Um. 0:03:29.040 --> 0:03:31.560 And when you're talking that far back in history, though, 0:03:31.639 --> 0:03:35.520 things get a little bit tangled between what was reality 0:03:35.560 --> 0:03:39.720 and what was mythology. The Sumerians, for instance, worshiped a 0:03:39.800 --> 0:03:43.880 goddess named Gula who ruled over charms and spells and 0:03:44.080 --> 0:03:48.600 also poisons. But it's the Sumerians who also may have 0:03:48.680 --> 0:03:52.200 been the first to document the effects of different poisonous substances, 0:03:52.200 --> 0:03:55.960 so they didn't believe it was all magical. They did 0:03:56.000 --> 0:03:58.760 sort of know that it was also based in reality. 0:03:59.200 --> 0:04:03.680 They were into the science of it. If we jump 0:04:03.760 --> 0:04:06.680 forward a bit to around three thousand BC, during the 0:04:06.720 --> 0:04:09.480 time of the ancient Egyptians, there is evidence that they 0:04:09.560 --> 0:04:12.880 definitely kept records of poisonous plants and their side effects, 0:04:13.360 --> 0:04:16.839 and included pretty detailed records of how you could extract 0:04:16.839 --> 0:04:20.800 those poisons and how to distill them into poisonous substances. 0:04:22.800 --> 0:04:26.760 The ancient Greeks are also really well known for using poisons, 0:04:26.800 --> 0:04:30.240 specifically as a capital punishment, which is a sentence that 0:04:30.279 --> 0:04:33.960 they called state poison. And if you know your history, 0:04:34.080 --> 0:04:37.120 you also know that that's how Socrates was executed and 0:04:37.160 --> 0:04:41.680 the ancient Persians, Yep, they two were poisoners. There's a 0:04:41.760 --> 0:04:45.839 story about Queen Parasites, who lived in the fifth century BC, 0:04:46.400 --> 0:04:49.480 poisoning the carving knife before she used it to serve 0:04:49.520 --> 0:04:55.920 her daughter in law. Chinese history, India's history, there are 0:04:55.960 --> 0:04:59.599 stories spanning the globe of poisoning in almost every culture 0:05:00.040 --> 0:05:06.120 going back centuries. The earliest whispers of widespread murder by 0:05:06.240 --> 0:05:12.040 poison and by women specifically. UH dates back to about 0:05:12.080 --> 0:05:17.040 three hundred BC, and it involves a group of something 0:05:17.080 --> 0:05:20.279 like a hundred and seventy women who decided to use 0:05:20.320 --> 0:05:23.159 the plague as an alibi for poisoning a bunch of 0:05:23.279 --> 0:05:27.080 Roman men. Unfortunately for them, their rus didn't work, and 0:05:27.120 --> 0:05:29.560 I suppose unfortunately for the Roman men as well. Um 0:05:29.560 --> 0:05:32.440 and all of the women who were involved were convicted 0:05:32.440 --> 0:05:36.440 of their crimes. I would love to see how that 0:05:36.560 --> 0:05:40.880 group came about. I know that's a pretty big group 0:05:41.000 --> 0:05:44.440 to get and everybody be cool, but here's what we're 0:05:44.440 --> 0:05:47.960 gonna do. That is a large group of people to 0:05:48.279 --> 0:05:51.200 get on board with one thing exactly and not have 0:05:51.400 --> 0:05:53.880 one person sort of like tell their cousin, who tells 0:05:53.920 --> 0:05:57.480 their sister, you know, and then anybody's in jail. Right 0:05:58.680 --> 0:06:01.960 before the popularity of arsenic in the Middle Ages and 0:06:02.040 --> 0:06:05.440 into the Renaissance, the ancient Greeks and Romans were more 0:06:05.480 --> 0:06:09.920 inclined to use hemlock as their poison of choice. Hemlock, incidentally, 0:06:10.040 --> 0:06:12.680 is also part of the Parsley family. I actually thought 0:06:12.680 --> 0:06:15.760 that was really interesting, you know, like may inform your 0:06:15.880 --> 0:06:21.840 your culinary presentations going forward right, be careful of wild 0:06:22.000 --> 0:06:28.479 carrots like it's also in the family. So regardless of 0:06:28.560 --> 0:06:32.200 whether you're talking about arsenic or you're talking about hemlock 0:06:32.400 --> 0:06:35.240 or any other poison really for that matter, one thing 0:06:35.520 --> 0:06:40.320 is really clear. Throughout human history, poison has been a 0:06:40.400 --> 0:06:45.240 potent weapon in every assassin's toolkit. It is discreet, it 0:06:45.400 --> 0:06:47.920 is quick if you want it to be um and 0:06:48.040 --> 0:06:50.400 it could make a woman a wealthy widow, and it 0:06:50.440 --> 0:06:54.480 could set in motion a change in power. And there's 0:06:54.480 --> 0:06:57.719 a reason we're setting up all of this assassination shock. 0:06:59.320 --> 0:07:02.560 When we look at ancient women and their knowledge of poisons, 0:07:03.080 --> 0:07:05.080 there is one that stands out and one that we 0:07:05.120 --> 0:07:09.320 have in fact mentioned before. So our scene becomes ancient Rome, 0:07:09.560 --> 0:07:14.520 and our poisoner is a woman named Locusta. When we 0:07:14.560 --> 0:07:16.600 come back, we're going to dive into the life and 0:07:16.680 --> 0:07:30.360 crimes of this ancient poisoner. Welcome back to Criminalia. Let's 0:07:30.360 --> 0:07:33.520 get into who Locusta was and why the Roman elite 0:07:33.600 --> 0:07:40.040 might have been interested in her skills. Locusta was an 0:07:40.080 --> 0:07:43.520 active poisoner during the first century in the final two 0:07:43.560 --> 0:07:46.920 reigns of the Julio Claudian dynasty. During the Roman Empire. 0:07:47.760 --> 0:07:51.240 You may recognize her name from some of our previous episodes, 0:07:51.320 --> 0:07:54.720 but she has mainly been in the shadows. As we've 0:07:54.720 --> 0:07:57.680 been talking about this season, there's a long list of 0:07:57.680 --> 0:08:00.040 women who are remembered for their poisoned fuel like a 0:08:00.160 --> 0:08:03.280 sees right, but regardless of whether or not they actually 0:08:03.320 --> 0:08:07.920 committed the deed or in some instances deeds plural u. 0:08:08.120 --> 0:08:11.400 Sometimes there was rat poison in the eggnog, which we've seen, 0:08:11.640 --> 0:08:16.800 but we've also learned that sometimes it was simply deadly gossip. 0:08:18.160 --> 0:08:21.480 Poisoning in Rome was so common in the first century 0:08:21.480 --> 0:08:24.000 that it was often just assumed that if anyone in 0:08:24.040 --> 0:08:31.160 the Imperial court died, it was not natural causes, and women, women, 0:08:31.320 --> 0:08:36.760 well women, were considered the most notorious poisoners. At one point. 0:08:36.800 --> 0:08:39.240 As we mentioned before, the word for adulters was kind 0:08:39.280 --> 0:08:42.880 of synonymous with that of poisoner. Among the Romans, there 0:08:42.960 --> 0:08:46.680 was a pretty strong belief that Roman women poisoned for love, 0:08:47.480 --> 0:08:50.400 just romantic but not always true because they are so 0:08:50.520 --> 0:08:54.920 poisoned for money. Yeah right, So Locusta is mentioned all 0:08:54.920 --> 0:08:57.480 over the place when you're reading about the Roman Empire, 0:08:57.640 --> 0:09:00.600 yet not a ton of information of out who she 0:09:00.800 --> 0:09:04.559 is has remained over the centuries. Other than the fact 0:09:04.920 --> 0:09:08.360 that she was a woman who poisoned for money, we 0:09:08.440 --> 0:09:11.120 do know that she came from Gaul, and sometimes she 0:09:11.200 --> 0:09:14.160 is actually referred to as Locusta of Gaul, and at 0:09:14.160 --> 0:09:17.000 the time Gall was the outer province of ancient Rome. 0:09:17.360 --> 0:09:20.680 Today it is part of France. There is no record, though, 0:09:20.720 --> 0:09:22.440 of how she came to be in the center of 0:09:22.520 --> 0:09:26.800 Roman power. There is one super sketchy story about her 0:09:26.840 --> 0:09:30.840 being a real sketchy kidnapped. There's a lot of sketchy 0:09:30.880 --> 0:09:34.040 when it comes to her story. Yes, um, there's one 0:09:34.080 --> 0:09:37.000 sketchy story about her being kidnapped in the year fifty 0:09:37.120 --> 0:09:40.319 four and being brought to Rome to exploit her skills, 0:09:40.320 --> 0:09:43.400 which would suggest she already had a reputation. But that 0:09:43.520 --> 0:09:47.439 story is very unlikely, mainly because she was also already 0:09:47.559 --> 0:09:51.760 allegedly in jail on a poisoning charge in Rome in 0:09:51.840 --> 0:09:55.160 the year fifty four, and that story makes more sense 0:09:55.200 --> 0:09:58.440 in her timeline. She probably was in Rome in jail 0:09:58.720 --> 0:10:07.040 awaiting a sentence the accused to herself. She actually wasn't 0:10:07.080 --> 0:10:11.199 a poisoner. She was a maker of poisons, and it's 0:10:11.280 --> 0:10:13.040 kind of smart to think of her more like a 0:10:13.480 --> 0:10:16.640 like a botanist or a chemist, and she would have 0:10:16.679 --> 0:10:20.000 been really right at home making drugs an apothecary. But 0:10:20.200 --> 0:10:22.800 we've mentioned this man once before. He's a nineteenth century 0:10:22.800 --> 0:10:26.400 toxicology expert who was brought in several times as a 0:10:26.400 --> 0:10:30.600 court witness. His name is Dr Alfred Swain Taylor, and 0:10:30.720 --> 0:10:34.320 he once said, and we quote him, a poison in 0:10:34.360 --> 0:10:37.160 a small dose is a medicine, and a medicine and 0:10:37.240 --> 0:10:42.280 a large dose is a poison. It's a subtle difference, yeah, 0:10:42.320 --> 0:10:47.199 and probably one that Locusta was very very keen on maintaining. 0:10:47.480 --> 0:10:53.000 I'm just making compounds, right, But being an apothecary strictly 0:10:53.240 --> 0:10:56.560 in the apothecary sense was not the path that she chose, 0:10:57.360 --> 0:11:00.560 regardless of whether it was medicines or poison. Though she 0:11:00.720 --> 0:11:04.440 was an expert in her craft. She's often called a 0:11:04.480 --> 0:11:08.839 serial killer, but Locusta could really also be called more 0:11:08.880 --> 0:11:13.040 of an assassin for hire. She provided poisons because she 0:11:13.120 --> 0:11:17.080 was hired to do so. Professor of forensic psychology Dr 0:11:17.200 --> 0:11:22.600 Katherine Ramsland has called Locusta's business necro entrepreneur. I just 0:11:22.760 --> 0:11:25.640 I when I saw that, I was like, she's right, 0:11:26.520 --> 0:11:34.920 I think that's a great business card title. If we've 0:11:35.000 --> 0:11:39.400 learned anything this season, it's that Romans loved their poisons, 0:11:39.440 --> 0:11:43.439 and in particular, they loved mixing them into their politics. So, 0:11:43.480 --> 0:11:48.000 as you can imagine, Lokista was in great demand among them, 0:11:48.040 --> 0:11:52.000 and stories of Locusta suggests that she was also discreet. 0:11:52.640 --> 0:11:55.360 She didn't need to know why you needed poison or 0:11:55.440 --> 0:11:57.480 who you may have hoped to kill with it. I 0:11:57.520 --> 0:11:59.360 don't want to know about your beefs. I'm just selling 0:11:59.360 --> 0:12:01.960 you some chemic goals. I just wondered if you want hemlocker, 0:12:02.000 --> 0:12:06.560 opium und okay. All she needed to know was how 0:12:06.640 --> 0:12:10.760 you might want a theoretical death to play out. For instance, 0:12:10.880 --> 0:12:13.920 were you thinking about a quick and sudden death or 0:12:14.000 --> 0:12:16.920 were you imagining more of an agonizing lye long and 0:12:16.960 --> 0:12:21.640 painful affair. Either way, poison was always the matter of 0:12:21.640 --> 0:12:25.000 the day. It was a silent killer and perfect, always 0:12:25.040 --> 0:12:30.080 perfect for the job. She didn't just create and mix poisons. 0:12:30.120 --> 0:12:32.880 She advised others on which poisons would be best for 0:12:32.920 --> 0:12:35.959 their desired result, and she took on apprentices, which I 0:12:36.000 --> 0:12:38.760 thought was actually pretty cool. Usually if you're discreet, you 0:12:38.760 --> 0:12:42.120 don't do that um And eventually she was running a 0:12:42.200 --> 0:12:47.120 sort of training academy for poison assassins, and she encouraged 0:12:47.280 --> 0:12:50.840 and taught the poison arts too many, although to be honest, 0:12:51.160 --> 0:12:53.640 most of the poisonings that were happening at this time, 0:12:53.960 --> 0:12:58.760 we're all happening in the Imperial court. Emperor Caligula, for instance, 0:12:58.880 --> 0:13:02.000 is said to have had a trunk filled with various poisons. 0:13:02.720 --> 0:13:06.520 Poison was serious business in politics, so no wonder she 0:13:06.600 --> 0:13:10.720 started this cottage industry, as like the University of poison, 0:13:12.280 --> 0:13:14.960 there are there. Actually, when I was doing some research, 0:13:15.000 --> 0:13:17.319 I found that there were there were sort of three women, 0:13:17.360 --> 0:13:19.720 Locusta being one of them, and two other women who 0:13:19.800 --> 0:13:22.200 were well known for poisoning at the same time, but 0:13:22.600 --> 0:13:26.040 they had been apprentices of hers, so they really weren't 0:13:26.080 --> 0:13:28.480 necessarily part of her story. They just happened to be 0:13:28.880 --> 0:13:31.840 other poisoners, which I'm sure there were hundreds of across 0:13:31.880 --> 0:13:36.160 the city. So she, getting back to Locusta, was one 0:13:36.200 --> 0:13:38.400 of the few women we've talked about this season who 0:13:38.440 --> 0:13:44.320 didn't rely on our favorite poison arsenic. Her poisons would 0:13:44.320 --> 0:13:48.559 have actually included mostly vegetable poisons, and and that meant 0:13:48.559 --> 0:13:51.360 that she would have relied on plants like Belladonna and 0:13:51.600 --> 0:13:56.199 deadly nightshade, mandreg hemlock opium. Those are just a few examples. 0:13:56.360 --> 0:13:59.080 H Wolf Spain was another good one that was surely 0:13:59.120 --> 0:14:00.920 part of her tool kids, and it was known as 0:14:00.920 --> 0:14:05.000 the Queen of Poisons. It said that when she formulated 0:14:05.080 --> 0:14:09.000 new poisons, she tested them at the emperor's request, on 0:14:09.120 --> 0:14:13.880 convicted criminals and enslaved persons. And actually the reality was 0:14:13.920 --> 0:14:16.720 that she tested her poisons on anyone she wanted to 0:14:16.760 --> 0:14:22.120 test them on, because frankly, she could. It's true. One 0:14:22.120 --> 0:14:26.480 of the great Roman historians, Tastus, described her as, and 0:14:26.560 --> 0:14:30.720 we quote him, a woman lately condemned as a dealer 0:14:30.760 --> 0:14:34.800 in clandestine practices, but reserved among the instruments of state 0:14:34.840 --> 0:14:40.000 to serve the purposes of dark ambition. So he was 0:14:40.120 --> 0:14:43.560 also known to play up the stereotype that women were 0:14:43.760 --> 0:14:46.720 much more likely to be poisoners than men were, and 0:14:47.160 --> 0:14:50.560 that stereotype has led the public to label women like 0:14:50.680 --> 0:14:53.240 the Cuesta as a witch. And we've seen it time 0:14:53.240 --> 0:14:57.280 and time again, no matter what century we've talked about. Yeah, 0:14:57.320 --> 0:14:59.760 he was not the only one to link female poisoners 0:14:59.800 --> 0:15:03.320 with witches or witchcraft, not at all. This there was 0:15:03.360 --> 0:15:06.760 this pervasive and very popular belief that has carried on 0:15:06.920 --> 0:15:09.560 through the centuries that any woman who could make and 0:15:09.600 --> 0:15:13.600 who administered poisons couldn't just have scientific knowledge, she had 0:15:13.640 --> 0:15:17.080 to be a sorceress or or that she was at 0:15:17.160 --> 0:15:20.720 least somehow involved with magic. And that is a belief 0:15:20.760 --> 0:15:23.200 that we talked about through the centuries when we talk 0:15:23.240 --> 0:15:30.840 about accused female poisoners, never science, magic. Sir, this is 0:15:30.840 --> 0:15:32.840 going a good time for us to take a quick break. Um, 0:15:32.960 --> 0:15:35.000 when we come back, we're going to go deeper into 0:15:35.000 --> 0:15:51.280 how Locusta was influential among the Roman elite. Welcome back 0:15:51.320 --> 0:15:55.840 to Criminalia. Let's now get into how Locusta's skills could 0:15:55.880 --> 0:16:02.640 make or break an emperor. So we've talked briefly, very 0:16:02.680 --> 0:16:07.080 briefly about Locusta in an episode earlier this season, very 0:16:07.080 --> 0:16:10.960 early on, when we told the story of Empress Julia Agrippina. 0:16:11.160 --> 0:16:14.120 So Julia was said to have poisoned her husband to 0:16:14.320 --> 0:16:18.000 ensure her only son, who became Emperor Nero, would ascend 0:16:18.120 --> 0:16:22.000 to the throne. It was Locusta who provided the goods 0:16:22.120 --> 0:16:26.200 to make all of that happen. And Locusta, while she 0:16:26.480 --> 0:16:30.040 had what seemed to be a pretty steady business. She 0:16:30.080 --> 0:16:34.120 didn't work completely unscathed, though she paid prices for this 0:16:34.200 --> 0:16:36.960 line of work that she chose. She was arrested and 0:16:37.000 --> 0:16:40.480 thrown in jail several times. Twice she was bailed out 0:16:40.560 --> 0:16:46.280 when high ranking, ambitious and impatient Roman politicians intervened. After all, 0:16:46.320 --> 0:16:48.600 you can't have your assassin sitting in jail when they 0:16:48.600 --> 0:16:55.040 are political rivals to be poisoned. Murder by poison gave 0:16:55.080 --> 0:16:57.880 an easy alibi. We've mentioned this time and time again 0:16:57.920 --> 0:17:00.480 that you probably wouldn't be around when the victor and died, 0:17:00.640 --> 0:17:03.320 so it was really important to a lot of people 0:17:03.400 --> 0:17:06.080 that her business stayed up and running. Right. It's not 0:17:06.160 --> 0:17:08.600 the same as being stabbed like you're going to be 0:17:08.640 --> 0:17:10.280 there for that event, you know. That is that they 0:17:10.280 --> 0:17:13.119 couldn't have it. So if you recall him just a 0:17:13.119 --> 0:17:15.919 bit earlier, we mentioned that Lakista was not known just 0:17:16.000 --> 0:17:19.520 for her skills, but for her discretion, and that was 0:17:19.920 --> 0:17:23.199 surely by design. Since she didn't want to know what 0:17:23.240 --> 0:17:26.200 her client's business was regarding their plans for the various 0:17:26.280 --> 0:17:30.280 compounds she was concocting, she couldn't then share any details 0:17:30.320 --> 0:17:34.880 with authorities. If she was caught and interrogated. That engendered 0:17:34.920 --> 0:17:37.560 a level of trust in her, which is another reason 0:17:37.600 --> 0:17:40.000 why Rome's High and Mighty would step in to help 0:17:40.000 --> 0:17:42.200 her when she got all jammed up. The third time 0:17:42.320 --> 0:17:46.920 Locusta was imprisoned, it was actually the embress herself, Julia Agrippinma, 0:17:47.000 --> 0:17:49.879 who sprung her. Of course, she had a specific purpose 0:17:49.880 --> 0:17:54.160 in mind. Well, it's Julia. Julia wanted to poison her husband, 0:17:54.320 --> 0:17:59.720 Emperor Claudius, and Locusta was happy to oblige. It's here 0:17:59.720 --> 0:18:02.960 that we take another turn to show just how enterprising 0:18:03.080 --> 0:18:08.040 Julia Agrippina was. So instead of payment, which Locusta was 0:18:08.560 --> 0:18:12.480 very likely expecting and maybe a thank you, Julia instead 0:18:12.480 --> 0:18:15.960 turned her into the authorities and accused her of poisoning 0:18:16.000 --> 0:18:20.719 the emperor, which yes, sure technically she had provided the poison, 0:18:20.800 --> 0:18:24.440 but it was actually Julia who did the deed. Locusta 0:18:24.560 --> 0:18:28.880 was arrested again, surely a surprise to an assassin waiting 0:18:28.920 --> 0:18:32.520 for her payment for services rendered instead of being paid 0:18:32.600 --> 0:18:39.320 with um uh, traitorous moves man, and at this point 0:18:39.480 --> 0:18:44.879 she was sentenced to death. However, not long after the sentencing, 0:18:45.000 --> 0:18:49.639 Julia's son and now Emperor Nero, freed Locusta and absolved 0:18:49.640 --> 0:18:53.479 her of all of her crimes and allegedly gave her 0:18:53.480 --> 0:18:57.879 a get out of jail free card for any future crimes. 0:18:57.920 --> 0:19:01.560 That's a pretty sweet set up. It's a fantastic setup. 0:19:01.600 --> 0:19:03.639 When I was reading about it, actually checked it in 0:19:03.760 --> 0:19:06.919 multiple sources because I was like, I was like, he 0:19:07.160 --> 0:19:10.439 not only gave her absolutely he absolved all of her 0:19:10.480 --> 0:19:15.120 sins for before this, but any future ones. Like wow, 0:19:15.560 --> 0:19:18.760 So Nero, Um, if it sounds like something that an 0:19:18.760 --> 0:19:21.400 emperor would do, if he said, maybe wanted to make 0:19:21.440 --> 0:19:25.239 an ally of a poisoner, it was very likely that 0:19:25.359 --> 0:19:27.800 Nero did, in fact want to be allies with a 0:19:27.840 --> 0:19:30.560 poisoner or at least have this one on speed dial. 0:19:30.960 --> 0:19:34.800 So mainly because there were political parties he wanted to 0:19:34.840 --> 0:19:37.280 get rid of, he wanted look used to out into 0:19:37.280 --> 0:19:39.760 the room, and elite poison was the obvious way to 0:19:39.760 --> 0:19:43.200 make that all those stuffs happen. It's important to point 0:19:43.200 --> 0:19:47.080 out that Locusta was very instrumental in Nero's rise to power, 0:19:48.160 --> 0:19:50.360 not just getting him on the throne, but beyond that. 0:19:50.880 --> 0:19:54.040 She provided the murder weapon for him over and over, 0:19:54.680 --> 0:19:57.719 which he mainly used against members of his own family 0:19:58.000 --> 0:20:03.320 and those in the Imperial Court. We have no idea 0:20:03.440 --> 0:20:07.159 how many people were actually poisoned by the results of 0:20:07.840 --> 0:20:10.919 concoctions coming out of Locusta's lab, but we do know 0:20:11.080 --> 0:20:16.159 Nero was very very busy, it wasn't he. So he 0:20:16.640 --> 0:20:20.040 then actually rewarded her for all of her great work 0:20:20.119 --> 0:20:22.680 with him with an official title. She was called the 0:20:22.720 --> 0:20:26.760 Imperial Poisoner, which I mean, that's not very subtle, but 0:20:26.880 --> 0:20:29.840 then everybody already seemed to know who she was, so 0:20:29.880 --> 0:20:32.920 subtlety was really already out the window here and her. 0:20:35.440 --> 0:20:38.080 You know, I'm picturing the cocktail parties we're taking. What 0:20:38.080 --> 0:20:42.560 do you do? I'm the Imperial Poisoner, I see, and 0:20:42.680 --> 0:20:45.439 you draw your hand away and slowly back out of 0:20:45.440 --> 0:20:48.640 the room, back out and find somebody else to talk to. Cool. 0:20:50.280 --> 0:20:52.840 That must be very um can get dental with that. 0:20:53.000 --> 0:21:00.760 Like her career and her school for poison there's also 0:21:00.880 --> 0:21:04.359 really flourished under Nero's fourteen your rain, and she just 0:21:04.560 --> 0:21:09.439 she had a great decade. But of course, if you 0:21:09.480 --> 0:21:12.680 are close to power that was gained in troublesome ways, 0:21:13.560 --> 0:21:16.840 eventually it all falls apart. And when Nero's rain ended, 0:21:17.200 --> 0:21:21.440 so did Locusta's. Now there's something that we have to address, 0:21:21.520 --> 0:21:26.760 So bear with us. There's actually a really terrifying rumor 0:21:27.359 --> 0:21:31.360 about Locusta's death that is not and I repeat not 0:21:31.480 --> 0:21:35.320 all caps, not an ot true. But we're going to 0:21:35.400 --> 0:21:38.080 talk about it, if only to be one more voice 0:21:38.080 --> 0:21:42.399 on record saying that this did not happen. The story 0:21:42.480 --> 0:21:44.480 is terrible, so we're just gonna give you the short version. 0:21:45.640 --> 0:21:49.320 It's so gross, so gross that someone even concocted this 0:21:49.560 --> 0:21:53.240 as a fiction. Uh, it's no secret that the Romans 0:21:53.320 --> 0:21:57.320 enjoyed watching prisoners be tortured. Watching someone torn apart by 0:21:57.320 --> 0:22:01.000 wild animals was considered pretty good fun. Is not that uncommon. 0:22:02.680 --> 0:22:06.280 And while this terrible story suggests that that happened to Locusta, 0:22:06.440 --> 0:22:08.680 that she was torn apart by wild animals, it also 0:22:08.720 --> 0:22:11.680 suggests that she was first raped by an animal, by 0:22:11.680 --> 0:22:15.760 a giraffe. It is, as I said, horrifying. So let's 0:22:15.760 --> 0:22:18.640 say this one more time. That's not a real thing. 0:22:18.720 --> 0:22:21.800 This is not how Locusta died. This is something that 0:22:22.000 --> 0:22:26.000 someone concocted somewhere along the way. The Internet will tell 0:22:26.040 --> 0:22:29.840 you this story over and over that is not based 0:22:29.880 --> 0:22:32.760 in any kind of fact. No matter what the Internet says, 0:22:33.080 --> 0:22:35.439 do not believe it. This is not the true story. 0:22:35.840 --> 0:22:39.280 The real story is that Locusta was executed in the 0:22:39.359 --> 0:22:43.639 year sixty nine, shortly after nero suicide. So suicide was 0:22:43.680 --> 0:22:46.159 an acceptable way to end your life in Rome. So 0:22:46.200 --> 0:22:48.600 this part of his story actually was one of the 0:22:48.680 --> 0:22:52.480 least scandalous things that he probably ever did in his life. Nero, 0:22:52.680 --> 0:22:56.280 by the way, though died by a dagger, not by poison, 0:22:56.600 --> 0:22:59.280 though Locusta had provided a pinch for him in a 0:22:59.280 --> 0:23:02.760 small gold box in case he ever needed it. Nero 0:23:03.080 --> 0:23:07.600 was succeeded by Emperor Galba, who actually only reigned quite briefly, 0:23:07.720 --> 0:23:11.960 not even two full years, but that small period of 0:23:12.000 --> 0:23:14.280 time was long enough to put to death all of 0:23:14.359 --> 0:23:18.080 Nero's favorites, and we quote the scum that had come 0:23:18.119 --> 0:23:23.080 to the surface in Nero's day, and that included Nero's 0:23:23.119 --> 0:23:28.160 favorite poisoner Locusta. So, without Nero's protection anymore, and her 0:23:28.240 --> 0:23:31.880 skills were so well known, she was sentenced to death 0:23:31.920 --> 0:23:34.720 for her role in the murders of dozens of members 0:23:34.760 --> 0:23:37.160 of the Room and elite. She was put in chains 0:23:37.240 --> 0:23:39.800 and she was paraded through the streets of the city 0:23:39.880 --> 0:23:45.359 to her public execution. Now popular methods of execution did 0:23:45.560 --> 0:23:49.160 include wild animals sometimes, but it also very much included 0:23:49.160 --> 0:23:53.560 things like beheading, strangulation, being buried alive, drowning, and a 0:23:53.800 --> 0:23:57.480 big favorite at the time was crucifixion. So although we 0:23:57.520 --> 0:24:00.280 don't know exactly which one of these her execution would 0:24:00.320 --> 0:24:02.440 have been, we know that it had nothing to do 0:24:02.600 --> 0:24:11.040 with a giraffe. Yeah, the story ended on a down note, 0:24:11.320 --> 0:24:14.359 It really did. Thanks a lot, Maria. Sorry, she was 0:24:14.400 --> 0:24:16.800 the coolest ascid bar higher and then I just check 0:24:16.840 --> 0:24:19.359 it to a bad place. One of the things that 0:24:19.480 --> 0:24:23.159 I really liked about her story was this idea that, 0:24:23.560 --> 0:24:27.119 especially because she was working primarily with um, you know, 0:24:27.280 --> 0:24:31.840 vegetable based poisons and was a botanist. Really, I felt 0:24:31.920 --> 0:24:34.200 like you really sort of bonded at the idea that 0:24:34.240 --> 0:24:38.080 she was kind of a botanist chemist type, right, she's 0:24:38.200 --> 0:24:41.639 just busy figuring out what plants do. Um. So it 0:24:41.720 --> 0:24:45.760 got me thinking about fun things that I could make 0:24:45.800 --> 0:24:50.000 with plants and that might be unusual. As of late, 0:24:50.119 --> 0:24:52.719 I have been in the evenings as part of my 0:24:52.760 --> 0:24:57.320 wine down ritual, having a very milk heavy kind of 0:24:57.359 --> 0:25:01.359 like a chi that's not kelf and eated. Uh, And 0:25:01.520 --> 0:25:03.479 it just got me to thinking that something in that 0:25:03.560 --> 0:25:06.320 space might be very, very fun. So I came up 0:25:06.320 --> 0:25:10.119 with something that I called the Botanists Latte. And this 0:25:10.240 --> 0:25:13.360 starts with two cups of almond milk. You could also 0:25:13.480 --> 0:25:16.680 use any other milk that you desire. I do usually 0:25:16.720 --> 0:25:20.520 almond or oat, a bag of earl gray tea I 0:25:20.560 --> 0:25:24.200 opted for decalf in this case, and then a quarter 0:25:24.320 --> 0:25:28.240 cup of culinary rosebuds. These are easy to find. If 0:25:28.320 --> 0:25:32.040 you just do a in a search online for food 0:25:32.080 --> 0:25:34.919 grade rosebuds or culinary rosebuds, you'll find all kinds of 0:25:34.920 --> 0:25:37.760 sources for them. They're easy to get. Uh. And then 0:25:37.920 --> 0:25:39.920 I put all this in a saucepan and I just 0:25:40.040 --> 0:25:44.080 let it heat on medium uh until the milk got 0:25:44.160 --> 0:25:47.399 kind of steamy and just started to bubble around the edges. 0:25:47.440 --> 0:25:50.680 You don't want it to actually boil, just get nice 0:25:50.720 --> 0:25:53.000