
From the acclaimed author of *A Fatal Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum*, a wildly entertaining new history of Rome that uses the lives of 21 extraordinary women to upend our understanding of the ancient world.\
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The history of Rome has long been narrow and one-sided, essentially a history of “the Doing of Important Things.” It is a history of winning battles, passing laws, and “Having Important Opinions in Public.” And as far as Roman historians have been concerned, women don’t make that history. From Romulus through “the political stab-fest of the late Republic,” and then on to all the emperors, Roman historians may deign to give you a wife or a mother to show how bad things get when women get out of control, but history is more than that.\
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Emma Southon’s *A Rome of One’s Own* will correct that. This is a retelling of the history of Rome with the Important Things, but also all the things Roman history writers relegate to the background—or designate as domestic, feminine, or worthless. This is a history of individuals, 21 women who span the length of its territory and its centuries, who caused outrage, led armies in rebellion, wrote poetry, lived independently or under the thumb of emperors. A social and cultural history told with humor and verve as well as a deep scholarly background, *A Rome of One’s Own* highlights women overlooked and misunderstood, and through them offers a fascinating and groundbreaking chronicle of the ancient world.


A Rome of One's Own

A History of the Roman Empire

An entertaining and informative look at the unique culture of crime, punishment, and killing in Ancient Rome

In Ancient Rome, all the best stories have one thing in common murder. Romulus killed Remus to found the city, Caesar was assassinated to save the Republic. Caligula was butchered in the theatre, Claudius was poisoned at dinner, and Galba was beheaded in the Forum. In one 50-year period, 26 emperors were murdered.

But what did killing mean in a city where gladiators fought to the death to sate a crowd? In *A Fatal Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum*, Emma Southon examines a trove of real-life homicides from Roman history to explore Roman culture, including how perpetrator, victim, and the act itself were regarded by ordinary people. Inside Ancient Rome's darkly fascinating history, we see how the Romans viewed life, death, and what it means to be human.

A Fatal Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum

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A Rome of Ones Own

A Fatal Thing Happened On The Way To The Forum


Emma Southon has a PhD in Ancient History from the University of Birmingham. A version of her thesis was published as _Marriage, Sex and Death: The Family and the Fall of the Roman West_ (Amsterdam University Press, 2016). After a few years teaching Ancient and Medieval history, followed by some years teaching academic writing she quit academia and started writing for her own enjoyment.

Her critically praised _Agrippina_, a biography of the much-maligned mother of Nero, was published by Unbound in 2016.

Her acclaimed _A Fatal Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum_, an exploration of murder and homicide in the Roman world, was published by Abrams in the US and by Oneworld in the UK and has also been translated into Russian and Spanish.

Abrams published _A Rome of One's Own_ - _The Forgotten Women of the Roman Empire_ in North America in 2023, with Oneworld publishing in the UK as *A History of the Roman Empire in 21 Women.*


An entertaining and informative look at the unique culture of crime, punishment, and killing in Ancient Rome
In Ancient Rome, all the best stories have one thing in common murder. Romulus killed Remus to found the city, Caesar was assassinated to save the Republic. Caligula was butchered in the theatre, Claudius was poisoned at dinner, and Galba was beheaded in the Forum. In one 50-year period, 26 emperors were murdered.
But what did killing mean in a city where gladiators fought to the death to sate a crowd? In A Fatal Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, Emma Southon examines a trove of real-life homicides from Roman history to explore Roman culture, including how perpetrator, victim, and the act itself were regarded by ordinary people. Inside Ancient Rome's darkly fascinating history, we see how the Romans viewed life, death, and what it means to be human.

A Fatal Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum

by Emma Southon

Other Publications

by Emma Southon