Reviews tagging 'Torture'

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

22 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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child death, Death, Domestic abuse, Sexual violence, Slavery, Torture, Violence, Death of parent, Murder, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Gore, Misogyny, Sexism, Sexual assault, Suicide, Xenophobia, and Suicide attempt

ithladin's review

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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Domestic abuse, Gore, Physical abuse, Racism, Slavery, Suicide, Torture, Violence, Blood, and War

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

brep23's review against another edition

funny informative medium-paced

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Torture, and Murder

Moderate: Gore, Sexual violence, and Suicide

laurajeangrace's review

dark funny informative medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Domestic abuse, Gore, Slavery, Torture, Blood, Murder, and War

Moderate: Religious bigotry

amrithi's review against another edition

dark funny informative medium-paced

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Torture and Murder

ravennemain's review against another edition

dark funny informative

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Slavery, Torture, and Murder

ehmannky's review against another edition

3.75

This was an interesting deep dive into how Ancient Romans conceptualized the act of murder, what was and what wasn't a murder, how the state should or could be involved, who counted as even being a person able to be murdered. I think that sometimes the flippant nature (never my favorite thing in true crime or history books) was a bit much, but I appreciated that the asides and jokes were at the expense of the men in power and that Southon spends a lot of time trying to humanize the people who died and were ignored by those in power in Ancient Rome. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Child death, Death, Torture, and Death of parent

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