CSI: Ancient Rome – what can everyday killings tell us about the Empire and its people?
Emma Southon is a Bookshop Manager at Waterstones and the author of Agrippina: Empress, Exile, Hustler, Whore, a Best Book of the Year for the New Statesman. Armed with a PhD in Ancient History, she also co-hosts the History is Sexy podcast. She lives in Belfast, with her cat Livia, and tweets @NuclearTeeth. www.emmasouthon.com
‘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 (Glasgow)*
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