Murder, Execution, and Suicide in Ancient Greece and Rome

Alain Touwaide

Keywords

suicide; execution; murder; myths and legends; legislation; imagination

The political, scientific, cultural, and artistic life of the ancient world may be highlighted by such remarkable individuals as Pericles (ca. 495–429 BCE), Aristotle (384–322 BCE), Thucydides (460–395 BCE), and Phidias (490–430 BCE) in Greece, and Augustus (63 BCE; reign. 27 BCE–15 CE), Pliny (23/4–79 CE), and Cicero (106–43 BCE), as well as by Pompeii’s many fresco painters in the Roman world. It also seems to have been punctuated by treacherous murders, summary executions, and self-inflicted death for many reasons ranging from lovesickness to desperation and shame. Many illustrious individuals have been reported to have committed suicide: for example, the Athenian orator Demosthenes (384–322 BCE); the Egyptian Queen Cleopatra (69–30 BCE); even the philosopher Aristotle according to the ancient historian and philosopher Diogenes Laertius and the Byzantine lexicographer and historian of literature Hesychius; and the Carthaginian general Hannibal (247/6–183 BCE).

The case of the Athenian politician and general, Themistocles, (ca. 525–ca. 459) is revealing. According to historical accounts, he committed suicide by drinking bull’s blood, which in antiquity was believed to be highly toxic (and it probably was due to toxins such as botulinum, anthrax, or others resident in cattle). As the story goes, after he defeated the Persian fleet attacking Athens in the Bay of Salamis in 480 BCE, Themistocles was banished from Athens for political reasons and escaped to Persia. There, King Artaxerxes I (reign. 465–424/3 BCE) ordered him to lead a military operation against Greece. Themistocles refused and reportedly committed suicide rather than betray his country. Closer examination of the story reveals, however, that following Themistocles’s death (which probably was due to natural causes) its details were deliberately misinterpreted to save the reputation of an esteemed, victorious general turned traitor. To preserve the memory of his sacrifice, a statue was erected depicting Themistocles slaughtering a bull for sacrifice, thereby perpetuating the legend that he committed suicide rather than attack his native land.

Although suicide, murder, and execution were certainly a reality in ancient life, they were not necessarily as frequent occurrences as popular legend, political propaganda, or other ill-intentioned maneuvers would have us believe. At any rate, the use of lethal substances may be questioned. Often documentary evidence is anecdotal and cannot be corroborated for lack of supplementary and independent sources, or for presenting contradictory or implausible scenarios, as Cleopatra’s death suggests. A suicide carried out through a cobra’s organized biting seems to be more speculative than likely. Ancient medical literature credited cobra’s venom with causing instant paralysis, leading to immediate death. A suicide with no suffering was ideal and would have certainly been the supposedly self-indulgent Cleopatra’s choice. Nevertheless, it is highly improbable that a cobra could have been brought into her apartments without having been noticed. Cleopatra and Egypt were very important to the Roman Empire because of Egypt’s rich resources, especially its abundant agricultural production, which Rome needed to feed its people. Indeed, Cleopatra herself was viewed as a precious political commodity. At the same time, because of her liaison with Marc Antony, who had been defeated by Octavius, the future Emperor Augustus, Cleopatra became politically undesirable. Under these conditions, Cleopatra was kept under strict control in her palace where she could easily be assassinated. Her assassination was extremely risky, for it could well have provoked mob action and have led to Rome’s loss of control over Egypt. Crediting her with suicide—for reasons of desperation, political calculation, or any other reason—was the ideal coverup and so we will probably never know exactly how she died.

Murder was more often committed by stabbing than by poisoning. Caesar (100–44 BCE) is the best example. He was stabbed in plain light, in the Curia, by a group of conspirators, including his adoptive son (“Tu quoque, Brute, fili mi”—“You too, Brutus”). In many other cases, however, toxic substances were used. In the ancient Greek world, sovereigns who succeeded Alexander the Great and divided his empire showed a particular interest in poisoning. Antigonus Gonatas (ca. 320–239 BCE), king of Macedonia, Antiochus III (ca. 242–187 BCE), king of Seleucia, and Ptolemaeus IV Philopator, king of Egypt (ca. 244–205 BCE) were among such kings, together with Attalus III Philometer Evergetes, king of Pergamum (reign. 138–133 BCE). to whom Nicander dedicated one of his poems. According to historical sources, Attalus cultivated medicinal and toxic plants, including henbane, hellebore, hemlock, and aconite. He is credited with testing their toxic properties on individuals who had been sentenced to death. The purpose was not only to prepare poisons and to identify their lethal doses, but also–if not primarily–to make use of them, particularly in a time when political rivalry was intense and coups d’etat were not rare. The most famous among these Hellenistic kings who were manipulators of poisons is without doubt Mithradates VI Eupator, king of Pontus (133; reign. 120–63 BCE). An ambitious and unscrupulous politician, Mithradates had assassinated several members of his court and even members of his family (including his own mother) to preserve his throne. Furthermore, he fiercely opposed the Roman conquest of Asia Minor and inflicted severe defeat on Roman troops. Correctly fearing that he might be poisoned–whether by his own entourage or by the Romans–he absorbed increasing doses of all possible poisons to acquire immunity. He was so successful that, when he was eventually captured by the Romans in 63 BCE and he wanted to kill himself in order to escape the clutches of his captors, he consumed a poison that he always carried with him but did not die. He had no other recourse than to ask his slaves to run him through with a sword.

Poisons were no less common in Rome. As early as 449 BCE, the Lex duodecim tabellarum (Law of the Twelve Tables) prohibited poisons, thus clearly implying that they had been in use. The law probably did not have much effect, as a new one needed to be promulgated in 81 BCE: the famous Lex Cornelia de sicariis et veneficis (Cornelia Law on Assassins and Poisoners). Again, this new legislation did not necessarily prevent poisoning. Indeed, half a century later, the Latin poet Tibullus (ca. 55–19 BCE) wrote an elegy in which he recalled a sickness during which he thought he would die. Imploring mercy from Persephone, the Queen of the Underworld, he proclaimed that he did not poison anybody. Murder by poison even took place within the imperial palace, as is shown by the case of Claudius (10; emp. 41, d. 54 CE). Claudius was known to be fond of mushrooms, and so it was that he was served with an abundant plate of mushrooms, supposedly of boletus, but they might have been mixed with a poison. Whatever the toxic agent used, Claudius did die. It was his second wife, Agrippina (15–59 CE), who initiated plans to get Claudius out of the way so that her son Nero (37; emp. 54; d. 68) would become emperor. Claudius’s poisoning was orchestrated by Agrippina in collusion with a woman named Locusta, who was supposedly from Gaul, had mastered the art of poisons, and had been sentenced to jail for poisoning. Taken out of prison, she helped engineer Claudius’s murder. Ironically enough, she also prepared the poison that Nero himself would later use to kill himself. As for Locusta herself, she was executed under Emperor Galba (24; emp. 68–69), who, in turn, was killed by mutinous soldiers.

With rare exception, the exact nature of the poisons used for murder–whether they were prepared by an expert such as Locusta or by less competent assassins–is not known. The art of compounding poisons seems to have flourished during the first century BCE. Interestingly...