Today–October 13–back in A.D. 54, the Emperor Claudius was poisoned by his slimy fourth wife, Agrippina, who served him a dish of poisonous mushrooms.
Why’d she do it?
So her slimy son, Nero, could become the next emperor and the Beast of Revelation (though she didn’t know about that part).
GET THE STORY.
In other history news, today in 1307 there were mass arrests of the Knights Templar.
GET THAT STORY, TOO.
Author: Jimmy Akin
Jimmy was born in Texas, grew up nominally Protestant, but at age 20 experienced a profound conversion to Christ. Planning on becoming a Protestant seminary professor, he started an intensive study of the Bible. But the more he immersed himself in Scripture the more he found to support the Catholic faith, and in 1992 he entered the Catholic Church. His conversion story, "A Triumph and a Tragedy," is published in Surprised by Truth. Besides being an author, Jimmy is the Senior Apologist at Catholic Answers, a contributing editor to Catholic Answers Magazine, and a weekly guest on "Catholic Answers Live."
View all posts by Jimmy Akin
Today–October 13–back in A.D. 54, the Emperor Claudius was poisoned by his slimy fourth wife, Agrippina, who served him a dish of poisonous mushrooms.
His wife was slimy?
Maybe she was just beating him to the punch. I mean, c’mon, his 4th wife? What happened to wives number 1, 2 and 3?
Two were divorced. That’s enough to anger any woman. But not only was she sitting there wondering if she was going to be divorced, he put to death wify number 3.
OK, you say wife number 1 was divorced because she had an affair, but did you ever ask, ‘why did she have the affair in the first place?’
Then there’s wife number three. What was his response when informed of her execution?
‘Claudius was at dinner when he was informed of her death; his response was to ask for more wine.’
I know my wife’d be pissed.
“Claudius was at dinner when he was informed of her death; his response was to ask for more wine.”
Obviously, he was upset by the news and needed a drink.
Poor guy… 😉
And don’t tell me you believe that when people have affairs it’s the fault of their spouse! That’s like the guy I heard about the other day that told his wife it was her fault he looked at porn, because she didn’t have enough sex drive.
Claudius’s third wife, Messalina, had also divorced him, married a political rival, and attempted to stage a coup to topple him from power and take over the state with her new husband, so it was an execution for treason.
Kinda casts a different light on matters.
Well, he probably made her mad. Forgot to do the dishes or something.
Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned.
Speaking of the Templars, I heard a while back that there was a document found in the vatican that sugeested the templers were exonerated of their supposed crimes by the Pope, (Urban I think) but there was some confusion as to whether the document refered to all the knights or just the 4 principals on trial at the time. Has anyone heard of an update on this?
OK I guess I should read the links Jimmy puts in, The Chinon Parchment, Pope Clement, that’s it. But there’s still the controversy as to whether the pardon included all the knights or not, does anyone know?
Well, it certainly doesn’t include the kooks who think they’re descended from the Knights Templar.