History YMMV / TheRomanMysteries

* {{Squick}}: The ValuesDissonance of accurately depicting first-century Roman marriage customs and ideas about sexual maturity sometimes results in some otherwise entirely positively-portrayed relationships having some pretty weird undertones to a modern reader - this is most jarring when it comes to Gaius Flavius Geminus (early 30s at youngest) and Miriam (14) at the time of the their marriage, but there's also Flavia and [[spoiler: Flaccus]] apparently beginning to develop feelings for each other when she is 11 and he is 18 or 19 and Nubia ending up with [[spoiler: her teacher, Aristo]].

* {{Squick}}: The HistoricalValuesDissonance of accurately depicting first-century Roman marriage customs and ideas about sexual maturity sometimes results in some otherwise entirely positively-portrayed relationships having some pretty weird undertones to a modern reader - this is most jarring when it comes to Gaius Flavius Geminus (early 30s at youngest) and Miriam (14) at the time of the their marriage, Flavia and [[spoiler: Flaccus]] apparently beginning to develop feelings for each other when she is 11 and he is 18 or 19 and Nubia ending up with [[spoiler: her teacher, Aristo]].

* NightmareFuel: The ''The Gladiators from Capua'' provides a remarkably accurate description of the executions and contests in the Flavian Amphitheater, to include children being killed by wild animals. Perhaps not too bad for adults that have been jaded by watching things like ''Film/{{Gladiator}}'', but for little kids it could be a bit much.
* ToyShip: Lupus and Clio who become extremely close during ''The Secrets of Vesuvius''.

* {{Narm}}: Pulchra's prank on Jonathan while in her bath house in the TV adaptation. She feigns sneaking a peek on him and he reacts accordingly, which would be understandable if he weren't wearing long pants which cover actually ''more'' than his usual attire.

* {{Narm}}: Pulchra's prank on Jonathan while in her bathhouse. She feigns sneaking a peek on him and he reacts accordingly, which would be understandable if he weren't wearing long pants which cover actually ''more'' than his usual attire.
* NightmareFuel - The ''The Gladiators from Capua'' provides a remarkably accurate description of the executions and contests in the Flavian Amphitheater, to include children being killed by wild animals. Perhaps not too bad for adults that have been jaded by watching things like ''Film/{{Gladiator}}'', but for little kids it could be a bit much.

* WhatCouldHaveBeen: There were originally going to be eighteen books in the series, but Caroline Lawrence had to cut the mystery that was to take place in Roman Britain because there was no room on her carefully plotted time-line for the four protagonists to travel there and back again between the historical events that she wanted them to be involved with.

** Gaius, Flavia's uncle: The woman he loved married his twin brother, he remained unmarried for years, lost all his home and savings in the eruption of Mount Vesuvius and [[spoiler: though he finally fell in love again, he had less than a year with his wife before she died in childbirth.]]

** Lupus starts out as somewhat of a hardened, mistrustful JerkassWoobie as his parents were killed in front of him, his tongue was cut out and he was forced to become a beggar in order to survive, its hard to blame him

** Gaius, Flavia's uncle: The woman he loved married his twin brother, he remained unmarried for years, lost all his home and savings to the eruption of Mount Vesuvius and [[spoiler: though he finally fell in love again, he had less than a year with his wife before she died in childbirth.]]

** Nubia lost her entire family, was captured by Venalicius and sold as a slave, but still manages to be the voice of compassion and forgiveness with her friends.
** Lupus starts out as somewhat of a JerkassWoobie, but as his parents were killed in front of him, his tongue was cut out and he was forced to become a beggar in order to survive, its hard to blame him for being a hardened and mistrustful.
** Jonathan starts out alright despite his MissingMum, but upgrades to Woobie status. [[spoiler: His attempts to reunite his parents lead to him believing he's responsible for killing 20,000 people and he ''never'' forgives himself for it and considers suicide more than once.]] To top it off [[spoiler: his parents aren't really happy anyway and his sister dies leaving him to pick up the pieces of his family.]]

* ToyShip: Lupus and Clio, who become extremely close during ''The Secrets of Vesuvius''.
* WhatCouldHaveBeen: There were originally going to be eighteen books in the series, but Caroline Lawrence had to cut the mystery that was to take place in Roman Britain because there was no room on her carefully plotted time-line for the four protagonists to travel there and back again between the historical events that she wanted them to be involved with.

* HighOctaneNightmareFuel - The ''The Gladiators from Capua'' provides a remarkably accurate description of the executions and contests in the [[strike:Colosseum]] Flavian Amphitheater, to include children being killed by wild animals. Perhaps not too bad for adults that have been jaded by watching things like ''Film/{{Gladiator}}'', but for little kids it could be a bit much.

* HighOctaneNightmareFuel - The ''The Gladiators from Capua'' provides a remarkably accurate description of the executions and contests in the [[strike:Colosseum]] Flavian Amphitheater, to include children being killed by wild animals. Perhaps not too bad for adults that have been jaded by watching things like ''Film/{{Gladiator}}'', but for little kids it could be a bit much.

* HighOctaneNightmareFuel - The ''The Gladiators from Capua'' provides a remarkably accurate description of the executions and contests in the [[strike:Colosseum]] Flavian Amphitheater, to include children being killed by wild animals. Perhaps not too bad for adults that have been jaded by watching things like Film.{{Gladiator}}, but for little kids it could be a bit much.