A GRAND TOUR OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE
MARCUS SIDONIUS FALX WITH JERRY TONER
Profile, 304pp, £16.99
This is the third book in a trilogy which started with How To Manage Your Slaves in 2009 and continued with Release Your Inner Roman in 2016. Reviewing Toner’s ‘engaging, witty and learned’ first book in the London Review of Books, Tim Whitworth explained that How to Manage Your Slaves ‘masquerades as a newly discovered tract by one Marcus Sidonius Falx. Each of the 11 chapters consists of a short essay in which “Marcus” offers the benefits of his experience, along with some fortifying anecdotes, and a brief commentary by Toner himself discussing the context and parallels from genuine ancient sources.’
In this third volume, Toner, who is Director of Classical Studies at Churchill College, Cambridge, ‘again spins a tale that is enjoyable and informative’, wrote Patrick Kidd in the Times. ‘Each chapter of Falx’s travel guide is followed by a commentary by Toner giving the references in classical literature to support the seemingly tall tales.’ Not only are places ‘vividly brought back to life’, such as Ephesus, with its population of 150,000, but ‘there are also some lovely, if gruesome, tales of the road, such as when he visits the Olympic Games and describes a competition in the pankration, or no-holds-barred wrestling, that needed a stewards’ inquiry to decide the winner after both competitors died. In the end, the crown went to the body whose eyes had not been gouged out. In warning about unscrupulous inn owners he shares the story about one infamous for serving human flesh for dinner. Toner notes in his commentary that the medical writer Galen wrote that man-meat is quite tasty and like pork.’