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
Right.
Like kind of should be number one. Number two is like gout or whatever. You know, I don't know. What did they get? The doctor gives Claudius a feather to stick down his throat to induce vomiting. That's doctors then. I mean, that's it also. But that's how they did it in the vomitorium. Right, right, right. But the feather has been coated in more poison.
And we don't know if Agrippina did this or if the doctor was involved. However... They're locking it down.
Claudius dies. Okay. After Claudius dies, Agrippina, who hired Locusta, has Locusta jailed for the poisoning, which seems like a bad idea because you just talk, right? And you're like, oh, I didn't do this on my own. Right. I don't get it. It's a weird move, clearly like a paranoia move.
Because also it's all going to be down to her, obviously. Totally. Yeah. Like get rid of the evidence, but like the evidence can talk. But this doesn't matter because her son Nero quickly frees her because he also needs her help. Yeah. So Claudius's biological son is a man named... Give me the first letter. B. R. Britannicus.
No, I'm not gonna. He's named this because the Romans had recently expanded the empire to Britain around his time of birth. I don't know, Britannicus. My name's Georgia. What am I gonna say about that?
I can't. You can't. I truly can't. Britannicus still has a powerful claim to the Roman throne. Sadly, he's only 13 years old when his pops dies. In 55 AD, Nero pardons Locusta and quickly hires her to kill 13-year-old Britannicus, which is like, just send him to a fucking island.
It's so much killing. He wants her to make his death appear to be of natural causes at 13. Locusta attempts to poison him with arsenic, but it doesn't work. And Nero has her flogged for this. I don't think that's the best idea. Has locustiflog? Yeah. Oh, okay. But they try again. Nero throws a dinner party. Wine is served. The Romans would serve their wine diluted with water, blah, blah, blah.
Basically, before Britannicus takes a sip of his wine, his taster, who's specifically there to test for poison, takes a sip, says it's fine. And then Britannicus is like, oh, top me off with that kind of water. It turns out that water was the poison. Okay. So the tester didn't drink it again. Britannicus drinks it. It's probably belladonna. And the thing is, Britannicus has epilepsy.
The other people at the dinner party know this. So when he basically stops being able to speak, Nero's like, oh, he's just having a seizure, which is like, again, let's start with poisoning.
Britannicus is brought to another room to recover, but it's where he ultimately suffocates and dies at 13. According to lore, the poison Locusta used was known by the Romans to turn a victim's skin red. And Britannicus is buried very quickly after his murder. This is so Game of Thrones.
Right. With his face painted with a white chalk to hide his red skin. Yeah. People just aren't really paying attention, I feel like, back then.
Well, right. There's poisoners everywhere. There's poisoners. That's the fucking king or whatever. And you're just like, that's not for me.
But then someone's coming for you too. Yeah. You know? That's right. You can't poison everyone who will ever poison you. I know. Or something. But just because he has that chalk on his face, just before his burial, it starts to rain, showing the red skin under the white chalk. So it's immediately known throughout Rome that Britannicus has been poisoned. Wow.
There's also probably like a no snitching on, you know, Nero policy going on.
Absolutely. Yeah. Like, just keep your mouth shut. Nero rewards Locusta for securing the throne for him. He pays her, he gives her land, and he ultimately tasks her with opening up a school to teach other people to be poisoners. It's like a happy ending. Yeah, that is really positive. Yeah. He also grants her immunity for all future crimes. Does that sound familiar?
Not in the least. Anyway, fast forward. Immunity. Some accounts say that LaCosta is given enslaved people and prisoners to test her poisons on. That's just a rumor. And this is where the idea comes from that she is the first known serial killer. Which is so funny, like you don't think about, like you think of serial killer as a recent thing.
And some people say at this point, she just starts poisoning people because she enjoys it. Sounds like she's good at it, you know? Not just as a hired assassin. We don't know much about what else happens to Locusta for about 15 years until she's in her mid-50s. During this time, Nero has made a lot of enemies.
In fact, during this time period, Nero actually murders his own mother, who fucking put him in the throne. Yeah. Like, thanks a lot. Just ungrateful. Yeah. Little bastard. Totally. In 68 AD, Nero is unseated by a man named Galba and is forced to flee Rome.
Let's all get the fuck out of here. We've got to get out of Rome. And Nero dies by suicide shortly after this. The new emperor, your best friend Galba, overturns Locusta's immunity because that can be done as well. Yes, we've heard. And this comes as part of a purge of all of Nero's closest advisors. So for 15 fucking years, Locusta was living the good life. Yeah. And, you know, nothing lasts.
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