A Fatal Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum

‘A brilliant idea, brilliantly executed.’

-- Tom Holland, author of Rubicon, Dynasty and Dominion

‘Southon brings some great and little-known murder stories to light, revelling in the bizarre and the macabre.’

* BBC History Magazine *

‘She has a rare gift… Those left cold by the sober tones of scholarship will find this voice liberating and intoxicating. Its energy is boundless and its range immense… At a moment when the study of classics struggles to escape its starchy, imperialist legacy, Ms Southon’s cheeky enthusiasm feels like the path of salvation.’

-- Wall Street Journal

‘Blood, guts, murder, emperors and a sprinkling of uplifting Latin. A wonderful book on the Roman way of death. Mirabile dictu!’

-- Harry Mount, author of Carpe Diem and Amo Amas Amat... and All That

‘I love this funny, scholarly, erudite, irreverent book; Emma Southon wears her learning lightly but we never for a moment doubt her authority, and the past arrives with total immediacy from the first page. Reading it is like seeing a classical statue not remote and austere on a pedestal, but painted in all its original bright colours.’

-- Sarah Perry, author of Melmoth and The Essex Serpent

'The genius of Emma Southon’s new book, A Fatal Thing Happened On the Way to the Forum: Murder in Ancient Rome, is that it simultaneously humanizes the Romans and alienates us from them, portraying a society that’s at once a familiar ancestor and a rabid monster.'

-- Foreign Policy

‘this very approachable analysis of Classical homicide isn’t a dry academic tract… conversational and tongue-in-cheek without sacrificing scholarly credibility. A good chance to learn a lot and have fun doing it.’

* Herald (Glasgo