A very bizarre little incident in Roman history...

Perhaps it was just a novel way to commit murders that people otherwise would have just used a knife for?

Salah ad-Din said:

Perhaps. But to me Dio's language makes it sound as though this was a sudden, new phenomenon, suggestive of a particular group of people committing the murders.

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Like an international society of Assassins? Perhaps they were prostitutes? I've heard of this practice being used by ancient pro's when their customer became too rough or refused to pay up for services rendered. I'm not sure where I heard this, however.

Isn't this a very similar thing to people with aids randomly stabbing people with infected needles in nightclubs?

Excellent finding, Salah; the ideal stuff indeed for any nice Roman thriller (our CB seems to be already in the way) .

This seems indeed to be an entirely isolated report of this extraordinary killing method, more exactly in Dio's Ρωμαϊκή Ιστορία book LXVII, cp. V, sec. VI.

Please be aware that the immediately following passage stated:

The same portents are said to have appeared to Ulpius Trajan and to Acilius Glabrio when they entered upon the consulship at this time; to Glabrio they announced destruction, but to Trajan his assumption of the imperial office.

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As ostensibly no other "portents" were listed immediately previous to these passages (just endless examples of Domitian's cruelty and madness) it's clear that our historian considered these needle homicides as utterly exceptional and hard to believe too, i.e. as a perfect omen for the arrival of one of his favorite rulers.

This is IMHO a nice example of the well-attested tendency of the Roman historians in general (but particularly outstanding for Dio) of recording supernatural events heralding momentous events, no doubt at least partially due to the prevalent superstitious nature among their readers.

Sargon of Akkad said:

Isn't this a very similar thing to people with aids randomly stabbing people with infected needles in nightclubs?

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Superficially, yes; in fact, Dio's anecdote has been effectively quoted as a remote analogy pf AIDS needle assaults.