Poison, Pain and Death

Ctesias makes it clear that an intense rivalry existed between two queens at Artaxerxes II's court - his mother Parysatis and his wife Stateira - and the hostility was fuelled by each woman's desire to hold the place of honour in Artaxerxes II's affections, or at least to influence his decisions.

And so Parysatis, who had felt hatred and jealousy towards Stateira from the very beginning... She had a trusted servant called Gigis who held great influence with her... she helped in the poisoning. After their former suspicion of each other and their differences, although they had begun to frequent the same places again and to dine together, their mutual fear and caution nevertheless led them to eat the same food as each other served on the same dishes.

The Persians have a small bird, every part of which can be eaten since it is entirely full of fat... Ctesias says that Parysatis cut a bird of this kind in two with a small knife smeared with poison on one side, thus wiping the poison off on just one part of the bird.

And so this woman died in convulsions and in considerable agony. And she was herself conscious of the evil that had befallen her and made her suspicions about his mother known to the King, who was aware of his mother's brutal nature and implacability.

Arguably, the story of Stateira's poisoning is too complex to be made up (see also Ctesias, Fragment 27, § 70), and, after all, poisonings were common at the Persian court - Xenophon (Cyr. 8.8.14) openly states that courtiers regularly died in court intrigues at the hands of skilled poisoners, and Parysatis certainly had a reputation for being a crafty exponent of this most deadly of courtly arts (Ctesias, Fragment 16, § 61). So it is significant that we know that the office of royal food taster functioned prominently at the Persian court. The royal cupbearer was also a prestigious office held by only the monarch's most trusted courtiers - like Nehemiah, who performed that duty for Artaxerxes I (Neh. 1:11), or the son of the high-ranking Prexaspes, who served at Cambyses' court (Hdt. 3. 34) - for the cupbearer was charged with managing all the court's wine pourers and tasters although he alone poured the king's wine into his egg-shaped cup and tasted the monarch's drink to check that it was poison-free. Fear of poison might be a reason the Great King drank a wine unique to him - the Syrian Chalybonian wine (Ath. 2.28d) - and water from Susa contained in special pots. Ctesias also reports that the Great King and his mother not only had exclusive access to a special Indian poison kept within the palace for the purpose of causing a swift death for its victims, but that they also hoarded precious antidotes against even the deadliest poisons (Ctesias, Fragment 45m = Ael. NA 4.41). There was even a specific death sentence reserved for individuals charged with poisoning: ‘there is a broad stone on which they place the poisoners' heads and with another stone they pound and crush until their face and head are mashed to a pulp' (Ctesias, Fragment 29b, § 9). The existence of this torture implies that the threat of poison was taken seriously.