Reviews tagging 'Rape'

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

21 reviews

veskumelooni's review against another edition

funny informative reflective medium-paced

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Slavery, and Murder

inkwellimps's review

challenging dark funny reflective medium-paced

4.75

At first, I wasn't sure about this book. As someone more interested in Roman history than in true crime or popular culture, I hesitated in the introduction, as the author asserts that this book is Roman history for fans of true crime. I wasn't really fond of how Southon made a point to mention several times how "dull" aspects of Rome's history beyond the scope of the book were as a funny transition. This was probably exacerbated by the audiobook performance by Sophie Ward. Her haughty performance I found funny for the first hour and then for the next two I was thinking "how on Earth am I going to get through all of this?" After that though, I was able to get used to her delivery. 

The book really shines in the later half once it has your attention. Southon interprets "murder" broadly and gives details about gladiator fights that were completely new to me, amongst a plethora of other topics including murder within families and what society deemed as murder via magic. I would say the most important part of this book is how it  paints a detailed picture of slavery in Roman society. I had not realized quite how widespread the practice was. It was also interesting to me how Southon paints a realistic picture of Rome by assessing the biases that determine what history was written about and what history was not. I do recommend this book despite my rocky first impressions, and I intend to read more of Southon's works. I think for a general audience the writing style is approachable and the occasional modern analogy is welcome, I may have just had a problem with the audiobook's narrator.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Torture, Violence, and Murder

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Rape, Sexual violence, Slavery, and Classism

Minor: Child death and Suicide

emmsbookshelf's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark funny informative sad medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child death, Death, Domestic abuse, Gore, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Slavery, Suicide, Torture, Violence, Blood, Suicide attempt, Murder, Colonisation, and War

vessel's review against another edition

dark funny informative lighthearted medium-paced

4.75

Despite the serious topic, a light and easy read. It is thoroughly researched and diligently sourced. I picked A Terrible Thing up looking for a counternarrative to romanticized ideas of the greatness of the good old days of Roman culture that tend to permeate European general education and right wing circles alike, and it was just what I was looking for.

Through the 9 chapters, the author examines homicide in the Roman world from the early Republic through the height of the imperial era. Each chapter covers Roman murder in different contexts, such as familial murder, the killing of enslaved people, or that of an emperor. Each chapter is also divided into three shorter sub-chapters, making picking it up and putting it down quite easy.

The author's love for and deep interest in the subject is clear, and I found the voice easy to parse and quick to read, which is not always the case with historical non-fiction. On that note, though, while at some points laugh out loud funny, I found that a number of jokes a bit too reminiscent to Twitter humor really didn't land for me, and sometimes, they make assumptions about the reader that are quite annoying (like, the assumption that the reader enjoys and consumes true crime, or that the reader is "Western", whatever that means).

I would consider picking up a physical copy of this book for rereading, and am interested in the author's other works. I highly enjoyed A Terrible Thing, and recommend reading it, if you are interested in learning about Roman history from a different angle than usual.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Child death, Death, Physical abuse, Rape, Suicide, Violence, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

ravennemain's review against another edition

dark funny informative

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Slavery, Torture, and Murder

jayhall's review against another edition

dark funny informative lighthearted medium-paced

5.0

Absolutely incredible deep dive into murder and all forms of homicide in ancient Rome. Informative without being condescending or boring, Southon does a great job of even making the political nuances of ancient crime entertaining and interesting. An absolute must read for ancient history fans and everyday readers alike, I cannot recommend this book enough! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Xenophobia, Murder, and War

saltypiratewench's review against another edition

challenging dark funny informative lighthearted reflective medium-paced

4.0

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!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Torture and Murder

Moderate: Rape

yaboywillyshakes's review

challenging dark informative reflective medium-paced

2.25

While there are a handful of chapters where the author evokes the humanity of ancient murder victims and makes a decent argument about the way that murder is constructed as a concept by societies, her absolute disdain for the topic of Rome makes the first half of the book very hard to read. The later chapters are too full of somewhat childish pop culture references (largely Harry Potter, which also gives me pause for other reasons) to make the book relevant to larger audiences, and I was not impressed with the level of research in the last chapter specifically. It felt like the author was cherry picking information to support her own ends, and it felt very shallow in comparison with the preceding chapters.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Incest, Rape, Sexual violence, Slavery, Suicide, Torture, Abortion, and Murder

It's about ancient Rome and murder, so perhaps the content warnings should be assumed, but the author sometimes shoehorns topics into places where I did not expect them, I wish I had been warned.

danimacuk's review against another edition

dark funny informative slow-paced

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Slavery, Violence, Blood, Murder, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Moderate: Child death, Domestic abuse, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, and Suicide

Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Pedophilia, and Religious bigotry

another_dahlia's review

dark funny informative medium-paced

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Death, Domestic abuse, Racism, Rape, Sexism, Slavery, Suicide, Torture, Violence, Murder, Colonisation, War, and Classism