Georgia Hardstark
speaker
4,112 appearances
38 recordings
2 series
first heard Nov 2024
last heard Feb 2025
Georgia Hardstark’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.
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Appearances
It's where they get the saying bread and circuses, which I've never heard before, but Ali thankfully put in here. Yeah. And you're nodding like you've heard of it.
That's what it says here. The emperors keep the people happy by providing free food and entertainment, including the gladiators. And then they
fuck off and do their own thing and then we all fight about like the kim kardashian of gladiators right and we're all over here they got more food and circuses than i did and how dare that person doesn't deserve as many circuses because they're lower than me and i'm yeah and then we fight with each other and ignore the fucking oligarchs and the billionaires don't pay taxes and the billionaires don't pay taxes and corporations run the fucking country yeah
What? Where are we?
Okay, I guess. So this is where kind of the beginning of the opulent, technologically advanced city of Rome, the expanding empire around it. It's good to be fucking wealthy in Rome at this time. But of course, at this point in time, it's not good to be a person living in one of the areas Rome is conquering.
But within the city of Rome, even an average Roman citizen, life's pretty stable and conditions are comfortable, you know, comparatively.
In the 70s. Yes. This period of time is called the Pax Romana and it will last about 200 years. And then the empire will decline and fall. And after that, it's the Dark Ages. Super fun. And then it's lights out for Europe until the Renaissance. Yeah. So that's where we're at right now. It's like time of wine and roses.
This is around when the movie Gladiator takes place. Gladiator's a little later, but around this time. But while normal people are enjoying themselves, the ruling class is still constantly full of infighting, jockeying for power, and assassinating one another. kind of their thing. This presents an opportunity for a girl from Gaul with a deep knowledge of plants and poisons.
You got to use what you know. Also, why don't we know it anymore?
All the sorcery plant fucking recipes. Yeah.
So in her early career in Rome, Locusta works with two other women to make poisons for wealthy clients. The three of them are often referred to as sorceresses. Locusta becomes independently wealthy for doing this. Fucking get it, girl. She would have used hashtag boss bitch if she had Instagram. Do it. You know? Locusta makes a name for herself.
Graffiti. Somehow. But I can't read. She makes a name for herself. She's hired by members of Rome's elite to help them carry out assassinations in their various power struggles. And by 54 AD, when she's about 40 years old, she's been arrested and convicted on multiple occasions. However, her powerful clients get her off every time. Yeah.
We don't know about all the poisons Locusta uses, unfortunately. Those are secrets now. But records show that she used belladonna or deadly nightshade, as well as arsenic and a litany of other poisons. I think you'd have to imagine Sally from The Night Before Christmas. You know what I mean? Yeah. Just a skinny, pale girl that's like, I like to combine things. Little of this.
And it sounds like she also knows how to create new poisons from different combinations. So she's fucking smart.
They don't make it themselves. I just realized that. Yeah. Poisoners. Yeah. So by this point, we're on Rome's fourth emperor, Claudius. Augustus, the first emperor, had essentially consolidated power and set Rome on this path to growth and conquest. And then there were two other emperors until Claudius.
Claudius marries his niece, a woman named Agrippina, who had already been married, like, oh, my God, drama, and whose first husband had died, possibly by poisoning. Agrippina has a son from that previous marriage, his name Agrippina. Do you want to try to guess? Yeah. You don't have to. No pressure. Does it start with an L?
You're going to know the name. And so you're going to think, I wish I had known. Oh. Nero. Oh, yeah. Okay. So Nero obviously doesn't really have a particularly strong claim to the Roman throne because he's the son of the second wife. You know what I mean? Yeah. But Agrippina is like, but let's change that. I'm the new wife, or I'm the wife. Let me figure this out.
Agrippina convinces Claudius to change his will, making her son Nero the heir to the throne. This is in spite of Claudius having a biological son. And after Claudius changes his will, Agrippina wants to make sure that he doesn't have time in life to change it back. You know what I'm saying? So she turns to Locusta, who by this time is well known among Roman elites.
Agrippina and Locusta wait for a day when Claudius's most loyal servant has the day off. They had days off back then. That's nice. They poison a dish of mushrooms, which is Claudius's favorite food. And it's unclear if the mushrooms themselves are poisonous or if she applies poison to the mushrooms. We don't know how she sauteed and sautéed.
Other people say he was actually poisoned by belladonna brewed into a tea. Regardless, the story goes that Claudius gets sick. His doctor comes to see him. And I don't know why every single doctor who went to see any patient ever back then wasn't first like, you're being poisoned.
Showing 761–780 of 4,112 · page 39 of 206
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