first it was to cause mental derangement in Claudius and 
then, after some time, it was to kill him. This double 
effect served a double purpose. Agrippina wanted to 
avoid having the Emperor die during the dinner, for it 
would have been difficult then to suppress the rumor that 
he had fallen victim to a plot. This would have com- 
promised Agrippina as well as her son Nero, whom she 
wanted to become the future Caesar. Moreover, it would 
have been hardly possible for her to get rid of so many 
eye-witnesses. But since the dinner was perhaps the only 
occasion on which she was able to administer poison to 
her husband, she had to use a poison which would not 
kill immediately, 1.e. during the dinner, but when the 
dinner was over. However, she had to prevent Claudius 
from taking any measures which might save him and/or 
make Britannicus successor to the throne instead of 
Nero. Therefore, the poison had to cause mental de- 
rangement in the victim. The symptoms of mental in- 
coherence would be relatively inconspicuous, as Claudius 
was known to be a strong drinker. It was not unusual 
for the Emperor to get drunk in the course of a dinner. 
The symptoms of inebriation could hardly be distin- 
guished by uninitiated guests from those of poisoning. 
It seems, however, that even for Agrippina this was 
not an easy task. About what happened in the course 
of the memorable dinner ‘Tacitus reports: 
‘‘adeoque cuncta mox pernotuere, ut temporum illorum scriptores 
prodiderint infusum delectabili cibo | <bo> leto] venenum, nec vim 
medicaminis statim intellectam, socordiane an Claudii vinolentia; 
simul soluta alvus subvenisse videbatur. igitur exterrita Agrippina et, 
quando ultima timebantur, spreta praesentium invidia provisam iam 
sibi Xenophontis medici conscientiam adhibet. ille tamquam nisus 
evomentis adiuvaret, pinnam rapido veneno inlitam faucibus eius 
demisse creditur, ...’’ (Tacitus, Ann., XII, 67, 1-2, H. Fuchs, 
ed.) (2) 
‘The whole story came out soon afterwards. Contemporary writers 
inform us that the poison was poured into a tasty mushroom. The 
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