We have always used poisons

The use of poisons is as old as Humanity. Some discoveries have already shown that our most distant ancestors devised a way to incorporate some substance into their tools and weapons that would make hunting (or surely confrontation with an enemy) more effective. This was determined by the appearance of grooves or small holes

in the aforementioned utensils. And since the human species is an example of constant evolution, the uses of poisons also evolved with it, whether to be applied as part of a death sentence, or as a highly discreet mechanism to eliminate the closest enemies. One can imagine that once people realized that something could kill them without

too many external signs manifested, the survival instinct came into action. This is how a character named Mithridates appears, king of Pontus, who around the 1st century BC. c. , executed a series of trial/error events (incidentally, induced poisonings on his enemies), and the result of which led him to discover a kind of antidote that he called “Mithridatium”, which contained countless plants, juices,

extracts of tree bark among others, and which was taken to Rome to later be translated into Latin and studied by its scientists, especially Pliny the Younger. The cases of death by poisoning of the emperor Claudius, presumably executed by his wife Agrippina, and which led to the accession to the throne of Nero, who also had a fondness for

the use of poisons to silence his enemies and close relatives (when he saw imperial aspirations in them), mainly cyanide. About this same time, the story of Cleopatra VII, the last ruler of the Ptolemaic Dynasty, is known, who apparently committed suicide by causing death with the bite of an asp, also called the Egyptian cobra. The truth is that the cause of death could never be proven, but this story with a flavor of legend will always remain in the popular imagination. We have intentionally committed an anachronism to conclude this article with the most famous case of death by poisoning in Ancient History. Socrates (470 BC – 399 BC), undoubtedly one of the greatest in the history of human thought, tells the story that he was sentenced to death by the Court of Athens, given his opposition to the tyranny of Critias. Thus, a plant from the Apiaceae family called hemlock (Conium maculatum) was chosen, and due to its high content of coniine, a piperidine alkaloid, it is lethal in high doses. It is a neurotoxin that attacks the Central Nervous System and produces, in accordance with its name, a phenomenon called “cicutism.” The history, which we know through his disciples

more renowned such as Plato and Xenophon (although we must mention that neither was present at the execution), he tells us that having drunk a cup with the liquid extracted from the root of the plant "his life went out with an astonishing serenity while he discoursed on the immortality of the soul." Later research will determine that death from ingesting hemlock is excruciatingly painful; By causing the excitement of the Central Nervous System, tremors, neuralgia, hallucinations and convulsions arise, subsequently generating paralysis of the respiratory muscles that lead to death from

suffocation. This is why the testimonies of Socrates' disciples present at the time of his execution, and which Plato later compiled in some of his Dialogues, mainly the Phaedo, will be questioned. Versions will appear that mention a mixture of hemlock and opium, in order to maintain the version of a “sweet death.” The truth is that it will always be difficult to determine the level of pain or agony of those characters killed by poisoning, since it becomes evident that their end will prevent us from knowing their symptoms.