effects were not noticed immediately, either because of the Emperor’s 
natural sluggishness or because he was inebriated. It could also be 
observed that he evacuated his bowels. Agrippina became frightened. 
The worst was now to be feared. Braving all present obloquy, she 
called in the physician Xenophon, whose connivance she had already 
secured. He, it is believed, put a feather steeped into a rapid poison 
down the Emperor’s throat as if he purposed to help him in his effort 
to vomit.’’ (Trans. by Deltgen/Kauer) 
Attention is drawn to Wasson’s translation of this 
passage (cf. Wasson, p. 121). He translates ‘‘rapido 
veneno’’ as ‘‘deadly poison’’, which is definitely errone- 
ous. It makes asignificant difference whether Xenophon 
used merely some deadly poison or a rapidly acting one. 
Tacitus explicitly states that the effects of the poison 
were not noticed immediately—either by the uninitiated 
guests, who were not supposed to notice them, or by the 
murderess herself, as we can see from her frightened re- 
action. ‘his implies that the murderers, who knew the 
properties of the poison administered, were expecting 
immediate effects. In other words: since the first effect 
of the poison was to be mental confusion, they expected 
its symptoms to appear immediately, i.e. during the 
dinner. [t does not imply that the expected symptoms 
actually did not appear. The text permits the conclusion 
that the symptoms were in fact there, but were super- 
imposed by those of inebriation and thus could not be 
recognized with certainty by a non-expert in toxicology 
like Agrippina. There is no reason why we should as- 
sume that Locusta knew so little of poison making and/or 
the political situation of her time as to commit the pro- 
fessional blunder of mixing a poison which might cause 
an ‘‘evacuation of the bowels’’ or vomiting. She must 
have known that, should the plot fail, she might lose her 
life. We may therefore ascribe the ‘‘evacuation of the 
bowels’’ to the effects of alcohol. (8) 
We have to examine now whether the pattern of action 
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