'Those left cold by the sober tones of scholarship will find this voice liberating and intoxicating. Its energy is boundless and its range immense.' Wall Street Journal 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. But what did killing really mean in a city where gladiators fought to the death to sate a crowd? Emma Southon examines real-life homicides from Roman history to take us inside Ancient Rome's unique culture of crime and punishment, and show us how the Romans viewed life, death, and what it means to be human.

By the end of the fifth century, with the structural collapse of the Roman Empire in the west, Western Europe had fallen into the so-called Dark Ages. With the power of Rome removed, the Catholic Church stepped in to fill the void. Its political rise, alongside that of the Germanic kingdoms, led to dramatic changes in law, politics, power, and culture. Against the backdrop of that upheaval, the family became a vitally important area of focus for cultural struggles related to morality, law, and tradition. This book explores those battles in order to demonstrate, through the family, the intersections between Roman and Christian legal culture, thought, and political power.