Sephiroth
Causa Scientiae
- Joined
- Sep 9, 2007
- Messages
- 2,608
Treason Meals ('go on, honey, I made it especially!')
Somehow, thanks to Patrician, we ended up making the leap from the work of G.R.R. Martin to the general subject of ‘Treason Meals’. There are numerous examples of this throughout history. Essentially, it involves sitting down with your pals and tucking into a nice dinner…only it’s your last. This thread, therefore, is to discuss the general subject, as well as any specific instances and issues you would like to raise. To begin with, myself and the esteemed Giovanna Clairval (whose idea the thread was) will regale you with a couple of our favourite examples. The floor will then be open to everyone.
We begin with the story of the fourth Roman Emperor, Claudius I:
The Death of Claudius, or ‘A Short Cut Through Mushrooms’
"For when he rattled with the box, and thought he now had got 'em.
The little cubes would vanish thro' the perforated bottom.
Then he would pick 'em up again, and once more set a-trying:
The dice but served him the same trick: away they went a-flying.
So still he tries, and still he fails; still searching long he lingers;
And every time the tricksy things go slipping thro' his fingers.
Just so when Sisyphus at last once gets there with his boulder,
He finds the labour all in vain--it rolls down off his shoulder."
He is Tiberius Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus, Imperator, Princeps and Pontifex Maximus of the Roman Empire. He is the third to follow Octavianus the Divine Augustus, after grim Tiberius, the troubled general, and the infamous ‘Caligula’ or ‘Little Boots’ (the man who once threatened to make his horse a senator, and was stabbed to death by members of his own Praetorian Guard in 41 AD). The above, according to Seneca, is Claudius’ divine punishment for his many sins in life.
The ascension of Claudius to the purple was not straightforward. Born in Lugdunum (modern Lyon) in the year 10 BC, the grandson of Octavian’s sister suffered from some form of disability, for which his family long kept him away from public life (it is referred to by Suetonius as imbecillitas, yet the same man, his biographer, also shows him as a man of learning and keen intellect). “His knees were weak and gave way under him and his head shook. He stammered and his speech was confused. He slobbered and his nose ran when excited.” Despite this, historical sources show him to be a shrewd politician.
Upon the death of Augustus in 14 AD, a 23-year-old Claudius applied to the new emperor for permission to begin the cursus honorum, but this was refused, as it had been under Octavian. He retired to a scholarly, private life, and later claimed to have overplayed his physical symptoms in order to appear a fool, in this way avoiding the purges of Tiberius and Sejanus. When Tiberius finally died in AD 37, his heir Caligula, popular grandson of the renowned general, Marcus Agrippa, was installed as imperator.
Caligula recognised the value of Claudius, his uncle, and installed him as co-consul in the same year, but the new emperor soon fell gravely ill. After he recovered, he seems not to have been the same man; the Caligula of dark legend emerged, although likely his many social reforms were as much a motive for his murder as his later descent into fervent megalomania. Upon the death of Caligula, at the age of fifty-one, Claudius, always popular with the equites, was declared imperator by the Praetorian Guard, a situation which the Senate were soon forced to accept. In this way, as well as being the first emperor born outside of Italia, he set a precedent for the later history of the Empire. During his reign, the empire saw its first major expansion since the reign of Augustus, but he remained unpopular with the Senate, and many attempts upon his life were made.
His nemesis, however, lay much closer to home. His first wife of fifteen years, he divorced because of her adultery. His second marriage lasted only three years, and his third ended in tragedy with the execution of the adulterous Messelina, her lover and most of her entourage. He might have been forgiven for hoping that his fourth wife (and niece), the beautiful and reputable Julia Agrippina, would be faithful. She would, but not to him. Her twelve-year-old son, Lucius Domitius Ahenobarbus, would be known to history as the emperor Nero.
Claudius seems to have been enchanted by Agrippina, to the extent that she was given the title Augusta, an unprecedented honour. She even convinced him to adopt Nero as his legitimate heir, ahead of his natural son Britannicus. By 54 AD, however, Claudius seems to have had second thoughts about this, and started to prepare Britannicus for the throne.
Evidently, Claudius had to go. But how?
The historian Josephus takes up the tale:
Agrippina had long decided on murder. Now she saw her opportunity. Her agents were ready. But she needed advice about poisons. A sudden, drastic effect would give her away. A gradual, wasting recipe might make Claudius, confronted with death, love his son again. What was needed was something subtle that would upset the emperor’s faculties but produce a deferred fatal effect. An expert in such matters was selected – a woman called Locusta, recently sentenced for poisoning but with a long career of imperial service ahead of her. By her talents, a preparation was supplied. It was administered by the eunuch Halotus who habitually served the emperor and tasted his food.
Of course, accounts vary. Some say it was the death-cap mushroom (Amanita phalloides), some that it was not mushrooms at all, but colocynth (Citrullus colocynthis) that killed him. The administer of the poison is variously his taster, his doctor or the notorious poisoner, Locusta. Some say that he was not murdered at all, that he died of natural causes.
But Nero became emperor at the age of seventeen, and for the first few months, remained heavily under Agrippina’s influence. Claudius’ death had occurred, conveniently, just as soon as Nero could reasonably assume power, yet before the younger Britannicus was old enough to challenge him. The boy, of course, was dead within months of Nero’s succession. Agrippina, meanwhile, who for a short while wielded all the power of a Roman Emperor, died only five years later, murdered on the orders of her son.
Somehow, thanks to Patrician, we ended up making the leap from the work of G.R.R. Martin to the general subject of ‘Treason Meals’. There are numerous examples of this throughout history. Essentially, it involves sitting down with your pals and tucking into a nice dinner…only it’s your last. This thread, therefore, is to discuss the general subject, as well as any specific instances and issues you would like to raise. To begin with, myself and the esteemed Giovanna Clairval (whose idea the thread was) will regale you with a couple of our favourite examples. The floor will then be open to everyone.
We begin with the story of the fourth Roman Emperor, Claudius I:
The Death of Claudius, or ‘A Short Cut Through Mushrooms’
"For when he rattled with the box, and thought he now had got 'em.
The little cubes would vanish thro' the perforated bottom.
Then he would pick 'em up again, and once more set a-trying:
The dice but served him the same trick: away they went a-flying.
So still he tries, and still he fails; still searching long he lingers;
And every time the tricksy things go slipping thro' his fingers.
Just so when Sisyphus at last once gets there with his boulder,
He finds the labour all in vain--it rolls down off his shoulder."
He is Tiberius Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus, Imperator, Princeps and Pontifex Maximus of the Roman Empire. He is the third to follow Octavianus the Divine Augustus, after grim Tiberius, the troubled general, and the infamous ‘Caligula’ or ‘Little Boots’ (the man who once threatened to make his horse a senator, and was stabbed to death by members of his own Praetorian Guard in 41 AD). The above, according to Seneca, is Claudius’ divine punishment for his many sins in life.
The ascension of Claudius to the purple was not straightforward. Born in Lugdunum (modern Lyon) in the year 10 BC, the grandson of Octavian’s sister suffered from some form of disability, for which his family long kept him away from public life (it is referred to by Suetonius as imbecillitas, yet the same man, his biographer, also shows him as a man of learning and keen intellect). “His knees were weak and gave way under him and his head shook. He stammered and his speech was confused. He slobbered and his nose ran when excited.” Despite this, historical sources show him to be a shrewd politician.
Upon the death of Augustus in 14 AD, a 23-year-old Claudius applied to the new emperor for permission to begin the cursus honorum, but this was refused, as it had been under Octavian. He retired to a scholarly, private life, and later claimed to have overplayed his physical symptoms in order to appear a fool, in this way avoiding the purges of Tiberius and Sejanus. When Tiberius finally died in AD 37, his heir Caligula, popular grandson of the renowned general, Marcus Agrippa, was installed as imperator.
Caligula recognised the value of Claudius, his uncle, and installed him as co-consul in the same year, but the new emperor soon fell gravely ill. After he recovered, he seems not to have been the same man; the Caligula of dark legend emerged, although likely his many social reforms were as much a motive for his murder as his later descent into fervent megalomania. Upon the death of Caligula, at the age of fifty-one, Claudius, always popular with the equites, was declared imperator by the Praetorian Guard, a situation which the Senate were soon forced to accept. In this way, as well as being the first emperor born outside of Italia, he set a precedent for the later history of the Empire. During his reign, the empire saw its first major expansion since the reign of Augustus, but he remained unpopular with the Senate, and many attempts upon his life were made.
His nemesis, however, lay much closer to home. His first wife of fifteen years, he divorced because of her adultery. His second marriage lasted only three years, and his third ended in tragedy with the execution of the adulterous Messelina, her lover and most of her entourage. He might have been forgiven for hoping that his fourth wife (and niece), the beautiful and reputable Julia Agrippina, would be faithful. She would, but not to him. Her twelve-year-old son, Lucius Domitius Ahenobarbus, would be known to history as the emperor Nero.
Claudius seems to have been enchanted by Agrippina, to the extent that she was given the title Augusta, an unprecedented honour. She even convinced him to adopt Nero as his legitimate heir, ahead of his natural son Britannicus. By 54 AD, however, Claudius seems to have had second thoughts about this, and started to prepare Britannicus for the throne.
Evidently, Claudius had to go. But how?
The historian Josephus takes up the tale:
Agrippina had long decided on murder. Now she saw her opportunity. Her agents were ready. But she needed advice about poisons. A sudden, drastic effect would give her away. A gradual, wasting recipe might make Claudius, confronted with death, love his son again. What was needed was something subtle that would upset the emperor’s faculties but produce a deferred fatal effect. An expert in such matters was selected – a woman called Locusta, recently sentenced for poisoning but with a long career of imperial service ahead of her. By her talents, a preparation was supplied. It was administered by the eunuch Halotus who habitually served the emperor and tasted his food.
Of course, accounts vary. Some say it was the death-cap mushroom (Amanita phalloides), some that it was not mushrooms at all, but colocynth (Citrullus colocynthis) that killed him. The administer of the poison is variously his taster, his doctor or the notorious poisoner, Locusta. Some say that he was not murdered at all, that he died of natural causes.
But Nero became emperor at the age of seventeen, and for the first few months, remained heavily under Agrippina’s influence. Claudius’ death had occurred, conveniently, just as soon as Nero could reasonably assume power, yet before the younger Britannicus was old enough to challenge him. The boy, of course, was dead within months of Nero’s succession. Agrippina, meanwhile, who for a short while wielded all the power of a Roman Emperor, died only five years later, murdered on the orders of her son.
Keep them coming 
