Vibius Pacarius and the Poisoned Banquet
The Roman governor called his officers to a banquet—then poisoned every one of them.
Unknown — "Marble portrait of the emperor Antoninus Pius" (ca. 138–161 CE), public domain
A deadly dinner in Corsica.
In 69 CE, as Rome splintered in civil war, Vibius Pacarius, governor of Corsica and Sardinia, faced a choice. The island’s officers were loyal to Otho, the emperor in Rome. Pacarius was not. So he invited them all to a banquet and, as they drank, had them poisoned one by one.
A plan gone wrong.
Pacarius hoped to force the island to back Vitellius instead—until the locals found out. Furious at the treachery and terrified of Roman revenge, his own soldiers seized Pacarius and butchered him in public. His gamble lasted barely a week.
When loyalty means nothing.
Rome’s civil wars made and unmade men in days. In the chaos, a governor could poison a table—and wind up hacked to death in his own courtyard by sunrise.
Vibius Pacarius tried to drag an entire province into a civil war. When his scheme unraveled, he turned to murder and desperate betrayal—ending in a courtyard, hacked to pieces by his own men.
