Mushroom Hunting Print

As a child, I was very fond of picking mushrooms and dreamed of having a dog that would help me find it. The most desired mushroom was the Caesarean mushroom.The forest was full of birds, spiders, insects, flowers and trees, it was a pleasure to spend time in search of mushrooms. My heart sank joyfully when I found among the leaves a bright red head of a mushroom like a tomato or an egg. How delicious was my mother’s Caesar mushroom soup. Now I understand where the name of this miracle comes from.As you might guess from the name, Amanita caesarea was a favorite of the emperors of the Roman Empire, the Caesars. Perhaps Julius Caesar ate a meal of this delicious mushroom before Brutus did him in on the Ides of March (March 15). Et tu Brute? However, the most famous killing involving Amanita took place in ancient Rome circa 50-60 A.D. The Emperor Claudius had ascended to the throne after the assassination of his nephew Caligula. Claudius had several wives, but finally married his fourth wife Agrippina, who was also his niece. Agrippina already had a son from a previous marriage, Nero, for whom she had great plans. She persuaded Claudius to adopt Nero, putting him in line for the throne, should something happen to Claudius. (You can see where this is going already.) Agrippina was an impatient woman, and could not wait for a natural death for Claudius; she plotted to kill him by feeding Claudius his favorite meal, Amanita caesarea, laced with extracts from Amanita phalloides, the death cap. When the symptoms set in the next day, a co-conspirator doctor Xenophon administered an enema of colocynth, a potent toxin from a plant called bitter apple, which together with the mushroom toxin killed Claudius. Nero and his fiddle thus became emperor, and the rest, as they say, is history.