Reviews with content warning for Slavery - A Fatal Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum: Murder in Ancient Rome

Reviews tagging 'Slavery'

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

27 reviews

sara_shocks's review against another edition

dark funny informative

4.0

Roman history if you want to think about the legality of homicides and also want Philomena Cunk narrating. I generally enjoyed the more dry humor, but it's not for everyone, especially on the topic of murder.

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ithladin's review

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dark funny informative medium-paced

5.0

All the trigger warnings apply, but this book manages to be very interesting and funny and respectful at the same time.

The author has a great voice and I loved her analysis and how she gives context of the sources without losing the rhythm.

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veskumelooni's review against another edition

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funny informative reflective medium-paced

4.75

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wellreadandhalfdead's review

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dark funny informative

3.75

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inkwellimps's review

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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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