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  • Ancient Rome was the greatest power of its era

  • and one of the most spectacularly

  • impressive empires in history.

  • But then one day, it all collapsed.

  • While no one knows exactly why the empire disappeared

  • into history, at least one researcher

  • has proposed that the culprit might be something as simple

  • as lead exposure.

  • And while recent studies have uncovered high levels of lead

  • in Imperial Rome's drinking water,

  • the real danger might have been an artificial sweetener.

  • Today we're going to take a look at how Roman aristocrats might

  • have poisoned themselves with artificial sweetener

  • and destroyed the whole empire in the process.

  • But before we get started, be sure to subscribe

  • to the Weird History channel.

  • And let us know in the comments below what

  • other ancient investigations you would like to hear about.

  • OK, so you have a sweet tooth and a palate for lead.

  • Hmm, let me think.

  • Ah, I have a video you're going to love.

  • [MUSIC PLAYING]

  • The Roman Empire had an incredible amount of wealth.

  • And like pretty much all rich people,

  • wealthy Romans loved to throw a good feast.

  • Showing off one's bankroll by hosting elaborate dinner

  • parties was basically standard operating procedure

  • for the Romans.

  • Another was to sweeten the food with a thick grape

  • syrup called sapa.

  • The flavoring was made by boiling and skinning

  • grapes, then mashing them through a sieve,

  • and mixing the paste with sugar.

  • Sounds pretty yummy, right?

  • Well, the problem is that Romans would

  • cook the sapa in lead pots.

  • The lead would then mix into the syrup, making it toxic.

  • So while the sapa made the wealthy Romans' food

  • tastes better, it was also slowly poisoning them.

  • Bittersweet, indeed.

  • Sapa may have been toxic, but the Romans

  • loved it and used it for more than just sweetening foods.

  • It was also used extensively in winemaking.

  • Sapa was used to preserve wine, which had the unfortunate side

  • effect of infusing the wine with poisonous lead.

  • The Romans, much like a Real Housewife of Beverly Hills,

  • had a large appetite for wine.

  • The average Roman drank a liter of this stuff each day,

  • which adds up to around 100 gallons of wine a year.

  • That is a lot of lead.

  • And we're just talking about the average Roman.

  • Elite Romans drank even more heavily.

  • For example, the Emperor Elagabalus

  • was rumored to literally drink from a swimming

  • pool full of wine.

  • Not going to invite him to my next party.

  • [MUSIC PLAYING]

  • Romans used sapa as a sweetener because it worked.

  • The flavor does make wine and food taste better.

  • But today, we know that the syrup was toxic.

  • Modern science has determined that due to being made

  • in lead pots, the mixture contained

  • a compound called lead acetate, also known as Sugar of Lead.

  • We probably shouldn't take something so deadly and name it

  • something that sounds so sweet.

  • Downing as much lead acetate as the Romans did is not healthy.

  • The side effects of the poisoning

  • include dementia, infertility, and eventually

  • complete organ shutdown, which is

  • pretty bad because your organs are important.

  • [MUSIC PLAYING]

  • In the 1980s, research scientist Jerome Nriagu

  • recreated sapa using ancient recipes that

  • detailed the methods the Romans used to make

  • the artificial sweetener.

  • His results confirmed what he had long suspected,

  • that the sapa turned out to contain

  • a dangerous concentration of lead.

  • Quantities ranged from 240 to 1,000 milligrams

  • of lead per liter.

  • That's way more lead than I like in my liter.

  • Nriagu explained that even one teaspoon of such a syrup

  • would have been more than enough to give a person

  • chronic lead poisoning.

  • The Romans, of course, were ingesting far more.

  • How dangerous was ancient Romans sapa?

  • Well, it was so bad that if it existed today,

  • it would be outlawed in the United States.

  • And we're talking about a country that

  • loves Big Macs and Four Loko.

  • In fact, the modern threshold for lead is far, far lower.

  • The Environmental Protection Agency

  • will take action when drinking water reaches lead levels

  • of 15 parts per billion.

  • By comparison, ancient Roman sapa

  • was practically exploding with lead,

  • at a terrifying count of 2,900 parts per billion.

  • That's nearly 200 times the enforceable amount

  • regulated by the EPA today.

  • [MUSIC PLAYING]

  • So if lead pots were so dangerous,

  • why did the Romans use them?

  • Well, for one, they were completely oblivious

  • of the danger.

  • The notion of acid in the wine bonding with lead

  • was a little chemistry advanced for them.

  • But more importantly, Roman winemakers specifically

  • used lead vessels to make the sapa

  • because the end product would turn out noticeably sweeter.

  • This, ironically, was an effect of the lead acetate, which

  • despite being a noxious compound,

  • actually has a sweet taste.

  • There were also problems with some of the alternatives.

  • One ancient winemaker wrote that lead pots

  • were better than brass because in the boiling,

  • brass vessels throw off copper rust, which

  • has a disagreeable flavor.

  • [MUSIC PLAYING]

  • For Jerome Nriagu, researching lead exposure in ancient Rome

  • didn't stop at recreating the sapa.

  • He also researched the diets of over two dozen Roman emperors

  • from 30 BCE to 220 CE.

  • Based on his examinations, the scientist

  • found evidence that as many as 19 emperors

  • had a predilection to the lead-tainted wine

  • and frequently enjoyed foods sweetened with sapa.

  • The inescapable conclusion was that multiple Roman emperors

  • almost certainly suffered from lead poisoning.

  • That being the case, it's not a far jump

  • to wonder whether the effects of the exposure on the emperor

  • might have weakened the empire itself.

  • As noted previously, exposure to lead

  • can have many serious side effects.

  • For example, long-term contamination

  • can actually impair decision making.

  • But there were other risks too.

  • Roman emperors, wealthy aristocrats,

  • and others who consumed large amounts of lead

  • were also more likely to have conditions like gout.

  • In fact, multiple emperors showed

  • signs of having the affliction during their reign.

  • These included Claudius, Nero, Caligula, and Tiberius.

  • These particular emperors were also

  • known for their odd behavior, which

  • is another thing you would expect of an individual who

  • contracted lead poisoning.

  • Speaking of odd behavior, the Roman Emperor Claudius

  • took power after his nephew Caligula

  • died at the hands of Rome's enemies in 37 CE.

  • According to the ancients, Claudius,

  • who evidently wasn't the hero type, hid behind a curtain

  • while his nephew was getting killed.

  • After he became emperor, Claudius's rule

  • was marked by numerous uprisings.

  • According to Jerome Nriagu, Claudius

  • had disturbed speech, weak limbs, an ungainly gait,

  • tremor, fits of excessive and inappropriate laughter,

  • and unseemly anger.

  • Oh, and he often slobbered.

  • I think I met that guy at the office party.

  • These are classic signs of lead exposure, which

  • dovetails nicely with ancient descriptions of Claudius

  • being dull-witted and absentminded.

  • Or that last part might just mean that ancient historians

  • weren't too fond of Claudius.

  • [MUSIC PLAYING]

  • So how often did the Romans use sapa to sweeten their foods?

  • Well, one fourth century Roman recipe book known

  • as the Apicius, or "A-pik-ee-us,"

  • if that's how you prefer your ancient Latin,

  • included no less than 100 different recipes that all,

  • in one way or another, incorporated lead acetate.

  • They might have used so much sapa in their cooking

  • because they just loved the stuff.

  • But there might have been another, more scientific reason

  • as well.

  • Not too ironically, one side effect of lead exposure

  • is a metallic taste in the mouth.

  • If the Romans were experiencing that taste,

  • it likely would have encouraged them to use even more

  • sapa to cover it up, which would lead

  • to a more metallic taste in the mouth, which would lead

  • to a need for more sapa, which would lead to-- well,

  • you get it.

  • [MUSIC PLAYING]

  • So despite the repeated warnings about lead poisoning,

  • it's likely some of you are wondering

  • if there's a way you can make your own sapa.

  • Well, don't worry.

  • Pliny the Elder has you covered.

  • Pliny detailed the recipe and process

  • for making sapa way back in the first century.

  • Sounding like a hipster owner of a microbrewery,

  • Pliny wrote, "Sapa is a product of art, not nature."

  • He then explained that his "art" began

  • by boiling down the unfermented grape

  • juice to a third of its original quantity.

  • He was careful to distinguish this

  • from defrutum, a different recipe that

  • called for the grape juice to be boiled

  • to one half of its volume.

  • Sapa, Pliny stressed, was more concentrated.

  • This reduction would have made the sapa much sweeter

  • than grape juice.

  • And the Romans then further sweetened it

  • by boiling it in lead pots.

  • While we at Weird History would strongly

  • recommend to not use lead pots, the rest of Pliny's recipe

  • still works today.

  • Moreover, sapa itself, to be perfectly clear,

  • is completely safe to consume.

  • Its only toxic if it's been heated in a lead vessel.

  • [MUSIC PLAYING]

  • So what if they hadn't used lead pots to cook the sapa?

  • Would history be different?

  • Would the Roman Empire have lasted another thousand years?

  • It's always hard to answer hypotheticals,

  • but it's at least possible nothing

  • would be different because even without the sapa,

  • Romans still had a lot of lead in their diets.

  • The water many Romans drank was spring water

  • that had been transported across the empire in aqueducts

  • and lead pipes.

  • Those pipes transferred lead right into the water,

  • exposing the population to the heavy metal.

  • Sapa or no sapa, the Romans were swimming in lead.

  • So about that water, after traveling

  • through the lead pipes, Rome's water supply

  • would have become contaminated with lead.

  • How contaminated?

  • Well, researchers recently estimated that the Roman water

  • supply probably contained 100 times the levels of lead

  • that would have been found in local spring water.

  • And this wasn't just guesswork.

  • It's science.

  • The researchers actually compared sediments

  • from local ports with traces of water

  • found in ancient Roman pipes.

  • The scientists ultimately concluded

  • that the levels were probably too

  • low to cause significant harm.

  • But they acknowledged that drinking water contaminated

  • with any amount of lead can be dangerous and problematic.

  • [MUSIC PLAYING]

  • Given how widely sapa was used and enjoyed

  • in the ancient Roman Empire, it's

  • easy to assume that lead contamination was

  • a major problem.

  • But not all scholars agree.

  • Oh, come on, scholars, just agree on something.

  • In fact, when Jerome Nriagu first

  • introduced the lead poisoning theory for Rome's decline

  • in the 1980s, he immediately received a ton of pushback.

  • He argued with other historians who called his theory a myth.

  • And they claimed the Romans knew that lead was harmful.

  • Moreover, it was pointed out that sapa

  • was used for centuries before Rome's fall,

  • even during its Golden Age, which makes it difficult to pin

  • the decline on its use.

  • And indeed, modern researchers who

  • have examined lead levels in ancient Roman drinking water

  • have dismissed the idea that lead

  • could have been the primary cause of Rome's downfall.

  • Nevertheless, many find it hard to completely reject the notion

  • that centuries of consuming lead-tainted artificial

  • sweeteners certainly couldn't have been good for Rome either.

  • So what do you think?

  • How much lead contamination is in your artificial sweetener?

  • Let us know in the comments below.

  • And while you're at it, check out some of these other videos

  • from our Weird History.

  • [MUSIC PLAYING]

Ancient Rome was the greatest power of its era

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