A Fatal Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum

Murder in Ancient Rome

By: Emma Southon

Narrated by: Sophie Ward

An entertaining and informative look at the unique culture of crime, punishment, and killing in ancient Rome

In ancient Rome, all the best stories have one thing in common - murder. Romulus killed Remus to found the city; Caesar was assassinated to save the Republic. Caligula was butchered in the theater; Claudius was poisoned at dinner; and Galba was beheaded in the Forum. In one 50-year period, 26 emperors were murdered.

But what did killing mean in a city where gladiators fought to the death to sate a crowd? In A Fatal Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, Emma Southon examines a trove of real-life homicides from Roman history to explore Roman culture, including how perpetrator, victim, and the act itself were regarded by ordinary people. Inside ancient Rome’s darkly fascinating history, we see how the Romans viewed life and death and what it means to be human.

©2021 Emma Southon. Published in 2021 by Abrams Press, an imprint of ABRAMS, New York. All rights reserved (P)2021 Blackstone Publishing

Not a run of the mill history of Rome

Leave it to a British author to make the history of murders in Rome a hoot. Very informative, kept my interest, even laughed out loud several times. Highly recommend this book.

best history book ever

hilariously delivered, what a joy, I want more, great history of Rome and murder!

Excellent

Excellent and entertaining history of murder in Ancient Rome. Really enjoyed the narration. Subtly funny.

Roman history without gloss

Fantastic! The author writes in unabashedly frank language about the topic. The reader (woman, oh how I could kiss you for your performance) intones the perfect pitch, tenor, pronunciations, and marvelously understated matter-of-fact that makes this audio book shimmer.

This one was fun!

Murder, the Roman Empire, wit and humor… a wonderful mix that created a great experience.

History is absolutely nuts sometimes.

Great tale great narration. Southon is an amazingly witty historian. Highly recommend this great book.

Funny yet serious

I enjoyed her dry humor and taking the piss out of ancient ideas. She made following the names of all these Romans easier than in other historical audiobooks I've tried. The subject matter was very interesting and I learned a lot of new things. I wish there could have been more about common people, but as she says in the book repeatedly, we don't know enough about them because they weren't important enough to the Romans to write anything about. The stuff at the end about the executions and coliseum and crucifixions was ghastly and so interesting!

Highly Entertaining and Incredibly Insightful

Don't let the humorous style fool you into thinking this is a shallow book. It's very approachable for the more casual reader, but as an avid Roman history enthusiast I was constantly blown away by the depth of insights and critical analysis of stories and themes I thought I had known inside-and-out. It's certainly a very fun book if that's what you're looking for, but even if you're an Adrian Goldsworthy devotee like myself, there is a ton for you to learn and enjoy here. Could not recommend more highly.

Amusing, informative and well read

I'm not into True Crimes or icky stuff but I am into history, so I tried this book as another view on the history of Ancient Rome and was happily surprised by the new viewpoints!

The author takes what could have been a most dark and tedious subject and turned it into something far lighter, with irreverent and amusing perspectives, while still conveying the important information. Meanwhile, the narrator did a truly excellent job with the right inflections and maintaining my interest throughout.

The book has references to American and British contemporary culture throughout, which helps to put the storyline in perspective (otherwise it can be hard for us to relate to why people behaved as they did and we can easily misinterpret their actions) and her witty phrasing keeps it amusing, which retains our attention.

I did find the whole BCE/CE thing really frustrating and required internally translating, every single time, so it got really annoying. While I appreciate that it's the PC thing to do nowadays, really, the Roman Empire is where Christianity got its Big Break, so if any history deserves to use BC/AD then it would be in Roman history! Conversely, I read a history of India where they used BCE/CE and it felt appropriate there because, well, it's set in India. Also, that tale worked chronologically so it was BCE, BCE, BCE until it switched to CE and anyone can keep track of one switch during a history. But "Fatal... Forum" hops back and forth, given the contextual style of the writing (which makes sense), so you're constantly going BCE, CE, back to BCE, then... which one was that again? It's just tedious.

Here are some British cultural references that you might want to note down, so you can understand their context when you come across them:

"Spitting Image or Twitter" Spitting Image was/is a weekly TV show that took a satirical look at current events with puppets of the political characters in the news. You know what Twitter is.

National Service. Like Selective Service but it covered everyone (well, men, but I assume that if it was done now, it would include everyone). Conservative-minded folks sometimes say that "It would be good to bring back National Service, so people would have a stronger feeling for the country" and such notions (which is the point that the author was making).

Fox hunting. (The author mentions how it's unpopular with everyone else) In Britain, fox hunting is done by rich people, so everyone else hates it (them). In America, hunting is done by regular guys with a rifle and a six-pack and is seen a jolly good way to get some quality time.

Infames. The author makes an allusion to a completely hilarious movie-reference, but really, she's right and it's far too complex to explain without watching an entire movie, or preferably an entire set of movies, so I'll just Carry On.

There are various references to soccer players, but really, your guess is as good as mine.

There were a number of written and folded curses found in Bath. This is not "found in the baths", but instead refers to the Roman settlement of Aquae Sulis, now called the town of Bath.

There was an excellent homage to the "basis of government" that was an excellent play on Monty Python and the Holy Grail. But if you missed it then that's your own lookout, I have no sympathy at all.

The author refers to some really bad poetry but totally fails to reference Vogon Poetry, which I found to be a great oversight.


Overall, I'd say that if you'd like a fun and irreverent look at the development Roman society, give this one a try.

Irreverent goodness

I have read many histories of ancient Roman culture in the past but this one stands out as the only that has scholarly wit with irreverent social commentary. they mix to make a story that is engaging and interesting.