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.