A Fatal Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum: Murder in Ancient Rome

Emma Southon

Mar 2021 · Blackstone Publishing · Narrated by Sophie Ward

About this audiobook

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 fifty-year period, twenty-six 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.

Ratings and reviews

Both funny and informative, and read with the right tone of voice to make one snigger, this has a lot of the juicy gossip about murders one expects, plus a lot of things one does not expect - the different ways homicide is viewed by the ancient romans, compared to us (who like gory deaths on screen as much as the romans liked theirs in the arena). There is an excellent explainer of the time when politics started to get really stabby - the time of the Gracchi, about a century before Julius Caesar. Lots of carnage, and reminders of how little the subject matter of politics, what the two sides of politics are fighting for, and the tricks they'll use, haven't changed.. While I might quibble with some of the interpretations of the author, I still loved the book - lots to laugh about and ponder. Which says a lot, doesn't it? An average book can get glowing reviews from those that agree with everything in it. It takes something thoroughly entertaining to get a glowing review from someone like me who has some quibbles about some of what is said. But that is what this book is. Wickedly entertaining. (I'd give it 4-and-a-half if I could, because of the quibbles).

About the author

Dr. Emma Southon holds a PhD in ancient history from the University of Birmingham. Her thesis on the family in Western Europe after the “fall” of Rome was published as Marriage, Sex, and Death: The Family and the Fall of the Roman West by Amsterdam University Press in 2017, and she has published academic articles and chapters on historical reception, ancient Rome in the modern imagination, and the family in the postclassical West. Agrippina: Empress, Exile, Hustler, Whore was her first book for nonacademic audiences. She cohosts a history podcast with writer Janina Matthewson called History Is Sexy and works full-time as an expert fiction bookseller at Waterstones in Belfast, Northern Ireland.

Sophie Ward is an English actor, known for Book of Blood, Young Sherlock Holmes, and Jane Eyre. Her acting career also includes recurring roles in Heartbeat and The Nanny.