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

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.
Expand filter menu Content Warnings