Last fall the internet discovered that, apparently, men think about the Roman Empire a lot. While the Roman Empire wasn’t my “Roman Empire” (I honestly don’t know that I have one), it did spark a bit of curiosity about the actual Roman Empire, being an area in history that I haven’t given much study. Cue two reviews of A Fatal Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum: Murder in Ancient Rome by Emma Southon by friends the same week in January and I had the book that would be my initial foray.
Right off the bat, I loved Southon’s tone. She has a PhD in Ancient History and taught at the university level for a few years before leaving to start writing for her own enjoyment and in a way that just wouldn’t be acceptable in academic circles. Southon’s sense of humor is allowed to shine through because of that choice, making her insights even more accessible to her audience.
A Fatal Thing puts Southon’s immense understanding of the available sources historians have to work with front and center and shows what we can glean about life and murder in ancient Rome. Southon examines real-life homicides from Roman history to explore Roman culture, showing us how the Romans viewed life, death, and what it meant to be human. I loved how Southon tore apart the way in which the Roman Republic and Empire are taught, what we are trained to expect to view the history, and instead got into the nitty gritty of how it actually functioned. This is a dark history, as it were. Southon is talking about death, homicide, murder, and all the things that accompany those topics without sparing the details. I don’t know that I would suggest this to every enjoyer of historical true crime, but if that is your jam, and you have at least a passing interest in Roman history, then this book might be for you too. Just be prepared, it’s dense.
Bingo Square: Dun-Dun. That’s the noise I associate with murder pop culture.
