Arsenic

• Arsenic was a poison commonly used in Ancient Rome against political enemies.

Poisoning in the Ancient World

• In Ancient Greece, Water Hemlock was the preferred poison. In 399 BCE Socrates was sentenced to death by drinking a poison made from water Hemlock.
• In the Roman Empire, Hemlock was replaced by Arsenic.
• In 82 BCE, Sulla, the Roman Dictator, had to pass the Lex Cornelia, a Law against Poisoning, because poisoning had become commonplace in Politics.
• Dioscorides, Nero‘s Greek Physician, wrote about the use of Arsenic as a Poison during the first century CE.
• Symptoms: 30 minutes to 2 hours, or several hours if consumed with a meal. Initially, severe burning in the lips and mouth, painful swallowing and nausea, followed by vomiting and abdominal pain.

Antidotes

• Mithridatium, also known as Mithridate, was invented by Mithridates VI of Pontus as an antidote to prevent himself being poisoned.