The
last poison was much used at Rome, about two hundred years before the
christian era. At a later period, a female named Locusta, was the agent
in preparing these poisons, and she destroyed, in this way, at the
instigation of Nero, Britannicus, son of Agrippina.
The Carthagenians seem also to have been acquainted with this act of
diabolical poisoning; and they are said, on the authority of Aulus
Gellius, to have administered some to Regulus, the Roman general.
Contemporary writers, however, it must be added, do not mention this.
The principal poisons known to the ancients were prepared from plants,
and particularly aconite, hemlock, and poppy, or from animal substances;
and among the latter none is more remarkable than that obtained from the
sea-hare (_Lepus marinus_ or _Apylsia depilans_ of the system of
nature). With this, Titus is said to have been dispatched by Domitian.
They do not seem to have been acquainted with the common mineral
poisons.
In the year 1659, during the pontificate of Alexander VII, it was
observed at Rome, that many young women became widows, and that many
husbands died when they became disagreeable to their wives.
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