A Roman emperor died from eating too much cheese.
There were about 87 Roman emperors, some more (in)famous than others. One whose life and death is unlikely to inspire any epic films is Antoninus Pius, whose peaceful reign ended when he died after eating too much cheese. Two days before his passing, the 74-year-old was 12 miles from Rome when he gorged himself on Alpine cheese at dinner (relatable); he vomited later that night and awoke with a fever the following morning.
The emperor’s condition rapidly deteriorated, and, sensing that the end was near, he passed his estate to his adopted son and considerably more famous successor, Meditations author Marcus Aurelius. Pius died March 7, 161 CE, just eight days before the Ides of March. He was the fourth of Rome’s “five good emperors” who presided over an 84-year period of peace and prosperity, and his last word was aequanimitas, which means “equanimity.”
