The ancient world was a brutal place. Parts of the modern world are still brutal places. But back then, violence was pretty widespread, and so were drugs. Sometimes, it seems, the two were combined. After all, if you’re a Classical-era barbarian about to take on the best of the Roman legions, knowing decapitation, disembowelment or crucifixion are the likely outcomes should you lose, a little bit of chemical enhancement might seem like a good idea. A recent find in northern Europe suggests that Germanic warriors did just that.
Barbarian warriors in ancient Roman times may have used stimulants to aid their performance in battle, a study has proposed.
The practice is suggested by small, spoon-like objects fitted to warriors’ belts that have been found at various sites in northern Europe, according to the study published in the journal Praehistorische Zeitschrift. (Prehistoric Journal)
The authors conclude that the spoon-like fittings may have served as dispensers of stimulants for Germanic warriors going into battle.
In antiquity, the term “barbarian” referred to non-Roman peoples, often from tribes or cultures outside the territory Rome controlled, such as Germanic, Celtic and Hunnic groups.
There is, of course, no indication as to what these little spoons were used for, although they are said to be just the right size for a nasal snort of some kind of happy powder, the kind that fires a barbarian warrior up for a day of battle and pillage. Just what the doctor ordered for a barbarian army on the move, especially when they were facing the military equivalent of a Cuisinart.
But what kinds of powders may these warriors have been snorting?
[Researchers] found that Germanic peoples of the time likely would have had access to a wide range of substances that are capable of providing a stimulant effect, such as poppy, hops, hemp, henbane, belladonna and various fungi. These could have been consumed in liquid form—dissolved in alcohol, for example—or in powdered form.
That doesn’t seem like a good idea, grinding up various plants and sniffing up the powder, but when one has accepted the likelihood of dying by a sword through the neck, a little chemically-induced power-up may seem like the better odds. People in general back then didn’t have a long life expectancy, and when being sliced and diced by a Roman centurion was a possible future, we can hardly expect people to worry too much about snorting some henbane or foxglove.
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Interestingly, this isn’t the last time the Germanic people did something like this. During the invasion of the Low Countries and France in World War 2, the Allied troops were dumbfounded at how the Wehrmacht advanced at such an incredible pace, without stopping, without rest, for days on end. Turns out there was a little pill involved called Pervitin, which was basically crystal meth in tablet form.
Developed by the Temmler pharmaceutical company, based in Berlin, Pervitin was introduced in 1938 and marketed as a magic pill for alertness and an anti-depressive, among other uses. It was briefly even available over the counter. A military doctor, Otto Ranke, experimented with Pervitin on 90 college students and decided, based on his results, that the drug would help Germany win the war. Using Pervitin, the soldiers of the Wehrmacht could stay awake for days at a time and march many more miles without resting.
A so-called “stimulant decree” issued in April 1940 sent more than 35 million tablets of Pervitin and Isophan (a slightly modified version produced by the Knoll pharmaceutical company) of the pills to the front lines, where they fueled the Nazis’ “Blitzkrieg” invasion of France through the Ardennes mountains. It should be noted that Germans were not alone in their use of performance-enhancing drugs during World War II. Allied soldiers were known to use amphetamines (speed) in the form of Benzedrine in order to battle combat fatigue.
The history of mankind is the history of war. And, it seems, the history of chemical stimulants. Even Hamas reportedly used a synthetic form of methamphetamine during the Oct 7th, 2023, attack on Israel.
Hamas terrorists, who launched an unprecedented and surprise attack on Israel on October 7, killing over 1,400 Israelis, reportedly were under the influence of a psychoactive drug. According to a report by The Jerusalem Post, the terrorists were under the influence of Captagon, a synthetic amphetamine-type stimulant.
Captagon pills were recovered from the pockets of many Hamas terrorists, who were killed in Israel, The Jerusalem Post report added.
On that day which shall live in infamy, it seems Hamas was following an old tradition – even if their barbarity would have given Ghengis Kahn the dry heaves.
