It was a grueling campaign for the Roman legions of Pompey the Great around the southern edge of the Black Sea in 65 BC. The soldiers were getting frustrated battling the troops of Mithridates VI of Pontus and were tired and hungry. Suddenly, however, the day seemed much brighter when they encountered a stockpile of honeycombs on the way. They gorged themselves on the bounty like hogs in a corncrib.
Lamentably for the Romans, they began staggering around and falling incapacitated to the ground. The enemy, who had planted the honeycombs, methodically and effortlessly slaughtered three legions of Pompey's men. The foe was apparently aware of the toxicity of the honey and had perhaps heard that the army of Greek general Xenophon suffered the same reaction from the local honey 400 years previously.
About two thousand years later, brainiacs figured out that the bees in the area fed upon rhododendron blossoms and nectar. In doing so, they also ingested a substance called grayanotoxin and passed it on into the honey. Grayanotoxin is a poison which disrupts neural activity and disables soldiers to the point that they can be easily skewered.
Although Mithridates probably was not up to snuff on the exact biochemistry involved, he was a bottom-line type of guy who was happy just to reap the benefits of the results.
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