"It has a long history of use as a medicine, cosmetic, and poison. Before the Middle Ages, it was used as an anesthetic for surgery, the ancient Romans used it as a poison (the wife of Emperor Augustus and the wife of Claudius both used it to murder contemporaries) and predating this it was used to make poison tipped arrows."
and
"Drops prepared from the belladonna plant were used to dilate women's pupils, an effect considered attractive."
The intro from the Wikipedia entry ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atropa_belladonna ) says:
"It has a long history of use as a medicine, cosmetic, and poison. Before the Middle Ages, it was used as an anesthetic for surgery, the ancient Romans used it as a poison (the wife of Emperor Augustus and the wife of Claudius both used it to murder contemporaries) and predating this it was used to make poison tipped arrows."
and
"Drops prepared from the belladonna plant were used to dilate women's pupils, an effect considered attractive."