Soldato
The night of my conception...
If you could travel back in time..
- Thread starter Merlin5
- Start date
Soldato
By the way guys, I forgot to show you your time travel machine. This is it. I bought it from ebay, it's fully refurbed, only had 3000 users, and is in excellent working condition so it should get you back to the present with little to no problem. You just set the dials to your desired date and year and pull the lever. Just put your name down and you'll get your turn soon.
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Which courier do you use? God help us all if you use Hermes, because if you do, then half of their depot monkeys will end up in 1899
Man of Honour
Very true. However, I think perhaps we could read something into the general political state of things and the views of people around at the time. Then again, perhaps not. I was greatly impressed by the way they handled Caesar in HBO's Rome series - right up until the assassination you still can never really say whether his intentions are noble (the noblest of them all) or if he's a power-hungry master manipulator. Despite them giving you plenty to work with. Their Caesar was the very definition of enigmatic and it added a lot. Especially as seen through the eyes of Titus and Lucius who were sort of a natural populist and a constitutionalist (for want of a better term).
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I think that latter one would be maddening to watch. It's one of those things that it easily proven retroactively but probably took forever to come up with. Watching him drawing little triangles on his wax tablet for weeks on end, wander off, do some mathematics or hang out with friends, come back next month and play with his triangles again... I give it three days before you're saying in Greek "look, draw some squares on the triangle, right? Give you any ideas?"
I think that's true and it might well apply to most things. Given how guarded and politically skilled Caesar was, I think we'd have to spend a great deal of time spying on him to get the answers we want, if we ever could. Being unable to do anything other than observe would drive any curious person batty when dealing with people. Even if Caesar did have a secret diary of his true intentions (and I'd be amazed if he did), we wouldn't be able to open it to read it. I can now imagine myself watching him writing in his secret diary and saying "turn back a few pages, go on, re-read some things so I can read over your shoulder!"
So...something that can be observed without any need for interaction...one thing that comes to my mind is finding out what Archimedes was working on when he was killed. Or if he was - we can't say for sure that the story is true.
Ancient Romans were crazy!
I think that's part of the fascination. The fact that so much of it is common ground with us makes the bits that aren't stand out all the more. Like Cicero and Tiro. It's like they were brothers, so why on earth was Tiro Cicero's slave for so long? Why didn't Cicero perceive that as hugely inappropriate? It's bizarre to me, but it seemed normal to Cicero (and probably most Romans of that time, although there's some evidence it seemed odd to some people who knew them).
Knyght Errant recently made a video on the importance of using the appropriate aesthetic when trying to recreate an impression of a particular time and place. Specifically medieval western Europe (since that's their speciality), but it applies universally.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M47pqSmkK1Q
I think that's something that the people who created HBO's Rome series did very well, far better than is usually done with media set in a real historical time and place.
Soldato
I can see the logic but how would you actually go about verifying the landing?
I mean yes you could travel to the time but that wouldn't get you inside the command centre!
Man of Honour
Since you're invulnerable in this scenario and can travel at will, the easiest way would be to go to the lunar surface and watch from there. It would be useless for the stated purpose though, as few if any people who believe in the hoax conspiracy idea would believe someone who said "I travelled through time and space and watched it happen".
Soldato
I watched the Moon landings live on a black & white telly, so that'll do for that. So I'd go back to witness the 15km wide, 'dinosaur killer' asteroid hit Yucatan. Armageddon meets Jurassic Park.
Glad to see JFK mentioned on this first page of the thread as I've taken a massive interest in this the past 6 months. So much so that I'm heading to Dallas (because, why not) in March to visit Dealey Plaza amongst other things. I've read the Warren Report three times and about every book or opinion piece I could lay my hands on. Yea, the original story leave a lot to be desired.
So yes, I'd like to go back to that period.
Also would like to go back to the Danish raids of Scotland and Ireland as that's not very well explored compared the England invasions. Not sure what I'll do there though. Watch from afar maybe.
So yes, I'd like to go back to that period.
Also would like to go back to the Danish raids of Scotland and Ireland as that's not very well explored compared the England invasions. Not sure what I'll do there though. Watch from afar maybe.
So many options, but as my background is in Archaeology I would also choose to time-travel back to the Roman empire, to get an idea whether what we now think we know is remotely accurate to fact. It would be an interesting experiment to see whether the personalities and motives of the legion characters that have been revised so many times over the preceding centuries are as reported, and also to see how some of the historic battles and events really played out. I'd also like to go back to this period to see first-hand how people existed and the conditions they lived in; again, so much is known but it would be great to paint in some of the finer details. Too often, life at that distance is seen through a prism; whether distortion of the physical evidence, distortion via the snippets of (victor-led) history that have survived through the centuries etc.
Specifically, perhaps Vespasian's move into the near-east to quell rebellion and the sack of Jerusalem and the madness at the end of Nero's reign, in the second half of the first century. And seeing that military machine through the eyes of those subjugated, such as Josephus.
I'd also like to see Tibet whilst it was at the height of its isolationist, pious culture, prior to modern events. Even if just for the landscapes and humanity's ability to build exquisite architecture in the most unlikely of locations.
Feudal Japan would also be some trip. As would America through the 50s-60s; for the rock n' roll vibes and music taking root, the cars, diners, counter-culture etc all portrayed so often, but also for the underlying social problems. A coast to coast road trip, taking in everything. Also, the era of the Peloponnesian War, to really see the classical culture that had developed in Athens pitted against the city-state that was at the other end of the spectrum.
Specifically, perhaps Vespasian's move into the near-east to quell rebellion and the sack of Jerusalem and the madness at the end of Nero's reign, in the second half of the first century. And seeing that military machine through the eyes of those subjugated, such as Josephus.
I'd also like to see Tibet whilst it was at the height of its isolationist, pious culture, prior to modern events. Even if just for the landscapes and humanity's ability to build exquisite architecture in the most unlikely of locations.
Feudal Japan would also be some trip. As would America through the 50s-60s; for the rock n' roll vibes and music taking root, the cars, diners, counter-culture etc all portrayed so often, but also for the underlying social problems. A coast to coast road trip, taking in everything. Also, the era of the Peloponnesian War, to really see the classical culture that had developed in Athens pitted against the city-state that was at the other end of the spectrum.
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Soldato
- Joined
- 18 Oct 2012
- Posts
- 8,333
Maybe because i've just been watching about it but the christmas truce, or more correctly to observe the absurd dichotomy of humans at their 2 greatest extremes, to watch a grim stinking raucous world of torturous life and mechanised untimely death turned for a breif moment into a place of compassion and peace where foes turned to freinds.
I think it would certainly be a humbling thing to see.
I think it would certainly be a humbling thing to see.
Ask me another day and I'll give a different answer but I think it might be interesting to visit the aftermath of the great fire of London (not the immediate aftermath, but the weeks that followed), to witness how the city went about recovering from it, how they went about planning the rebuild effort etc.
Seeing historical monuments like Stonehenge etc get built and what the people actually did when it was completed would be interesting too, but would need some sort of time-lapse (if only I had a device for that...)
Seeing historical monuments like Stonehenge etc get built and what the people actually did when it was completed would be interesting too, but would need some sort of time-lapse (if only I had a device for that...)
Soldato
The battle of Thermopylae would be interesting to see, maybe the fall of Babylon but any of the CT stuff about JFK, 9/11 etc I wouldn't bother with as you'd never be ablt to tell anyone and knowing "the truth" but being unable to tell anyone would be too annoying!
Soldato
What would I do?
My requirements and interests are a little more 'basic'
My requirements and interests are a little more 'basic'
Soldato
And inadvertently become one!
"He cometh from a portal of time and smited the wicked, leading the people to salvation"
Would go back to biblical times and prove it to be BS, and that Jesus was just a nice bloke etc.
Also this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Thermopylae
Also this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Thermopylae
Soldato
And inadvertently become one!
"He cometh from a portal of time and smited the wicked, leading the people to salvation"
Oh, I hadn’t thought of that...
Soldato
By the way guys, I forgot to show you your time travel machine. This is it. I bought it from ebay, it's fully refurbed, only had 3000 users, and is in excellent working condition so it should get you back to the present with little to no problem. You just set the dials to your desired date and year and pull the lever. Just put your name down and you'll get your turn soon.
Do you provide insurance against Third Party Morlocks?
Soldato
- Joined
- 14 Mar 2011
- Posts
- 5,421
"Well, if I could go anywhere, absolutely anywhere at all in time, I think I'd probably choose to go back to a week last Tuesday"
"Why?"
"Don't you remember? I did all the laundry, and then we watched TV. Wow, we won't see the like of THOSE sorts of days again!"
- Kryten
"Why?"
"Don't you remember? I did all the laundry, and then we watched TV. Wow, we won't see the like of THOSE sorts of days again!"
- Kryten
Soldato
"Well, if I could go anywhere, absolutely anywhere at all in time, I think I'd probably choose to go back to a week last Tuesday"
"Why?"
"Don't you remember? I did all the laundry, and then we watched TV. Wow, we won't see the like of THOSE sorts of days again!"
- Kryten
Is that the same episode where they took JFK back through time so that he could shoot himself?
Thinking about it, going back to meet Thucydides would be fantastic. Just hanging out with him for a few weeks and seeing how he operated and getting a feel for the politics of the day and how battles were organized and fought.