A Fatal Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum: Murder in Ancient Rome

by Emma Southon

Marcus Aquilius Regulus was a real exemplar of how to make a tyrannical government work for you. For many, a despotic, capricious, semi-divine supreme leader with an ego like candy floss being washed by a racoon was a real obstacle to a happy life; but Regulus shows us that those people just weren’t sufficiently unscrupulous and devoid of conscience. Regulus knew how to see things from a different angle, how to turn a lemon into lemonade, make some money and also get revenge on everyone who ever annoyed him in the process. He was a real disruptor in the reign of two of the world’s most notoriously horrible emperors, and like all good disruptors, he was also a real prick.