Displayed here are the “Amanita Phalloides,” the “Death Cap” mushrooms responsible for 90% of fatalities caused by mushroom poisonings in the world today, and favored by assassins historically. The fungi are said to be delicious, and their toxicity lasts regardless of cooking, freezing, or drying. But the Death Caps’ common looks and tasty flavor belie the fact that an amount the size of a capful can kill a person — the toxins cause swift cell death inside the liver. For centuries, it was a dish of these mushrooms that was thought to have been the instrument responsible for the murder of the Roman Emperor Claudius in 54 CE. The assassin? His wife, Agrippina the Younger. She had married Claudius for political reasons – Claudius was capable mentally but physically impaired by a nervous disorder that made him drool and lurch. Besides, he was Agrippina’s uncle, and the Empress had in mind the interests of her son Nero from an earlier marriage. Although four writers from the Roman era blame Agrippina for poisoning her unlucky spouse, recent scholarship has argued that Claudius might have passed away at age 62 from a boring old cerebrovascular disease common in Antiquity.
Source(s): See the _Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine_ 2002 May; 95 (5): 260-261. Authors VJ Marmion and TEJ Wiedemann, “The Death of Claudius.”
