the case of a family whose members all ingested 4. phal- 
loides. Some showed symptoms of the gastric variant, 
others of the cerebral, although they had eaten from the 
same dish of mushrooms on the same day. Subsequently 
some died, whereas others survived. 
The temporal sequence of A. phalloides poisoning does 
not correspond to that which the murderers of Claudius 
seem to have expected. According to Wasson, the incu- 
bation period is 6-40 hours or more. EK. Leschke men- 
tions 10-12 hours. Greif and Braun figure 7-48 hours; 
Fazekas and Jakobovits 8-10 hours. [ewin considers 
9-24 hours as normal. These figures suggest an incuba- 
tion period with a minimum of six and a maximum of 
forty-eight hours before the first symptoms appear. In 
the case of Claudius, the conspirators expected the first 
symptoms to appear immediately, i.e. during the dinner, 
rather than six hours or even two days later. This was 
their only chance to make sure of the success of their 
effort to poison Claudius. Once the dinner was over, 
Claudius might be under control of their enemies again, 
and enemies they had at the imperial court. 
In order fully to understand this we must bear in mind 
the relationship between Claudius and Agrippina, which 
had become rather precarious by then. Agrippina de- 
ceived her husband by becoming the mistress of his 
treasurer Pallas. Claudius probably knew of this, for 
‘Tacitus reports: 
** . . he had remarked in his cups that it was his destiny first to 
endure his wives’ misdeeds, and then to punish them.’’ (Tacitus, 
Ann., XII, 65, trans. by M. Grant) 
Narcissus, Claudius’ secretary and probably the most 
powerful man at court, had already succeeded in elimi- 
nating Messalina because of her adultery. ‘This man was 
Agrippina’s avowed enemy. He was waiting only for 
the moment when she made another mistake—for one 
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