Adelais Valerius Posted March 21, 2008 Report Share Posted March 21, 2008 If we were to construct a time machine that allows you to travel back in time, initiates the part of your brain that controls language so you are able to understand speak latin and all that other jazz that you would need....Who would you like to meet the most and what would you have to say to them? And I don't mean things like "Do you like Cheeseburgers" because of course there wasn't such a thing as cheeseburgers, and that idiotic. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Faustus Posted March 22, 2008 Report Share Posted March 22, 2008 (edited) If we were to construct a time machine that allows you to travel back in time, initiates the part of your brain that controls language so you are able to understand speak latin and all that other jazz that you would need....Who would you like to meet the most and what would you have to say to them? Rome's First Architect, Marcus Vitruvius Pollio: Sir, As a time traveler from the distant future, you may answer my questions without any fear of conseqences from my repeating your words to anyone else while I'm in your time. I will soon be back in my own time, and whatever you tell me now will not be heard again for almost two millenia. I have some questions for you that my contemoraries would be interested in hearing the answers to: Â Do you consider the gods to have influence over the lives of all citizens or just certain citizens? Â As an engineer and a scientist, with a life guided by rationality and empirical evidence, does religion ever influence you in any way as a basis for your decisions, or do you allow religious considerations to enter into your profession in any way, or do you observe religious ceremonies purely for public approbation? Â If you do honor religious observances, in what other ways do you allow your religion influence you? Â (Depending on the answer to that question) How much of your own personal life do you allow religion to influence? Â What do you think about the Greek/Egyptian mathematical calculating practices like Euclid Edited March 22, 2008 by Faustus Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ursus Posted March 23, 2008 Report Share Posted March 23, 2008 I've read enough about the early emperors. I'd like to get know Sejanus. And maybe give him a helping hand - I often wondered what the empire would be like with him at the helm rather than the gradually degenerating Julio-Claudian dynasty. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nephele Posted March 24, 2008 Report Share Posted March 24, 2008 Having seen last week the live stage production of Richard Nelson's Conversations in Tusculum (thank you, MPC, for the headsup on that!), I have decided that I would very much like to have a quiet dinner conversation with Cicero. Â What I would especially like to discuss with Cicero, are the women in his life. Particularly those for whom Cicero appeared (both in the play and in his letters) to have held an abiding respect and love -- Porcia and Tullia. (Porcia appears as a character in the play; Tullia is mentioned as having recently died in childbirth.) Â Among the questions I would ask: "Did Cato's daughter Porcia actually play a role in helping you to divorce your second wife when you realized the marriage had been a mistake? Please tell me more about Porcia, and how she compared with other women you have known." Â Also: "You must have been deeply grieved when your daughter Tullia died. Please tell me about her, if it doesn't pain you too much to do so." Â I think that knowing more about what Cicero personally thought of the women in his life (including those he hated, as well as those he loved), would give me an interesting perspective on the man himself. Â -- Nephele Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Primus Pilus Posted March 24, 2008 Report Share Posted March 24, 2008 Pontius Pilatus. Interesting conversation on a number of issues from provincial government to Tiberius to the existence/trial of one particular religious icon. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Julius Ratus Posted March 24, 2008 Report Share Posted March 24, 2008 I would talk to Julius Caesar and Scipio Africanus, my favorite Romans. Discus tactics, and possibly play a game of Rome Total War. Perhaps I would have a good joke or three with Martial and Catullus. I would teleport Cicero and Marcus Antonius back with me and we all would hopefully have a more interesting election year! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Northern Neil Posted March 24, 2008 Report Share Posted March 24, 2008 Valentinian I. Whilst applauding him for his re - fortificaion of the frontiers, and the temporary halt in the barbarisation of the army, I would also ask him to bestow upon his son his own ideals of religious tolerance, and to keep the titles of Emperor and Pontifex Maximus as a single package. I would ask him lots of questions which to him would be mundane - such as, what was the internal structure of a late - period fort? Do units still named cohorts retain their principate - period structure, or have they evolved like the legions? Do the vast swathe of people from Lusitania, Hibernia to Galatia speak a related series of dialects, or have we moderns been making gross assumptions? I would also ask him to keep his head in any negotiations with barbarians... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bryaxis Hecatee Posted March 25, 2008 Report Share Posted March 25, 2008 I'd go for the greek global translation module and go meet Alcibiades in his Thracian fortress to have a long nice chat about his uncle, about Athens, about his vision of history, of the war still being fought, of the art of war in his time, about philosophy too. For who better than a pupil of Socrates and Pericles, leader of men in victory and defeat, great traveler and friend of many powerfull men could speak about all those subjects as well as he could ? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Adelais Valerius Posted March 25, 2008 Author Report Share Posted March 25, 2008 I would talk to Julius Caesar and Scipio Africanus, my favorite Romans. Discus tactics, and possibly play a game of Rome Total War. Perhaps I would have a good joke or three with Martial and Catullus. I would teleport Cicero and Marcus Antonius back with me and we all would hopefully have a more interesting election year! Â lol, I wonder what both would think of the game and how they would react to it. That gave me such a laugh, thanks.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cornelius_sulla Posted March 27, 2008 Report Share Posted March 27, 2008 (edited) Cornelia, Mother of the Gracchi. She's a fascinating woman who was connected in one way or another to all Paullus, Africanus, Aemilianus, her sons (of course) and outlived them all. I reckon the conversation that could be had about her and her family and her times would be fantastic. Answers would just lead to more questions. Edited March 28, 2008 by cornelius_sulla Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dianamt54 Posted April 3, 2008 Report Share Posted April 3, 2008 Cornelia, Mother of the Gracchi. She's a fascinating woman who was connected in one way or another to all Paullus, Africanus, Aemilianus, her sons (of course) and outlived them all. I reckon the conversation that could be had about her and her family and her times would be fantastic. Answers would just lead to more questions. I can't limit it to one, sorry. She would be an wonderful woman to meet. I would also like to meet Aurelia and Servilla. Not sure what I would talk about. Maybe how did you survive child birth? Didn't Cornelia had 12 children? Just two and I am done! I would love to meet Julius Caesar. "Did you want to be king?" I would like to meet Brutus, but I don't intend to meet him in Dante's deep layer of hell. Can I also say Richard III? I would ask him "Who Killed the Prince's in the Tower"? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gaius Paulinus Maximus Posted April 3, 2008 Report Share Posted April 3, 2008 Id like to meet up with Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa and ask him about his life and what it was like to live as Augustus' second in command. Id ask him just how big a role he really played in transforming the republic into the principate and was Augustus really all he's been made out to be? Â I'd also like to know what he made of Livia, was she really a wicked poisonous woman like she's been made out to be or was she a perfect example of a Roman matron? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Adelais Valerius Posted April 10, 2008 Author Report Share Posted April 10, 2008 (edited) Id like to meet up with Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa and ask him about his life and what it was like to live as Augustus' second in command. Id ask him just how big a role he really played in transforming the republic into the principate and was Augustus really all he's been made out to be? I'd also like to know what he made of Livia, was she really a wicked poisonous woman like she's been made out to be or was she a perfect example of a Roman matron? lol...i just found that humorous, the Livia part.... but I don't think if you met up with Agrippa, he would be willing to downplay himself though ...what good Roman would? Edited April 10, 2008 by mikeal1917 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lex Posted April 17, 2008 Report Share Posted April 17, 2008 (edited) Julian Apostate. Edited July 20, 2010 by Lex Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Arduumresgestasscriber Posted May 2, 2008 Report Share Posted May 2, 2008 Crassus. I want to ask him if he has any hidden treasure buried anywhere..."I build a monument for you 2000 years later sir, if you just tell me where X is on the map." Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.