so you find yourself in 272 bc....

[mountaingoat]

what would you choose to do?

and since i cannot edit this poll , we could say that the romans did have IT networks ... and that by servering the emperor .. you are helping to ... setup ..... servers... of ... some sort ...

[pezhetairoi]

Find out where you are.

[Azathoth]

Enter the cave and go forward.

[mountaingoat]

sorry i took a while to think of what to enter in the poll , only yo make a mistake with some spelling ..

anyway pick an option

[Azathoth]

I wouldn't want to do any of those things! Also, there was no emperor in Rome in 272 BC.

Anyway, I would immediately set out to look for The Book by finding a native and asking for the location of the nearest sovereign/village leader/general and the geographical location of the area relative to Athens.

[bobbin]

Rome didn't have an emperor in 272bc so not that...

I know! throwing a roof tile at a certain uppity hellenic monarch (I'd have to wear a dress for that).

[mountaingoat]

oh this is not meant to be extremely historically accurate ... even though this is an EB forum ... just pick an option punks

[antisocialmunky]

"servering the emperor at rome"

I'm sure the Emperor of Rome really needs an IT department if he were somehow also magically transported to 272 years in the past.

[DaciaJC]

I would go visit the leader of the Getai, advise him to spam falxmen, and then he would go forth conquering the world.

[Jebivjetar]

what would you choose to do?

I would have a bottle of wine, travel around the world with some instrument and sing the songs. And, yeah: when time comes i would join Hannibals army as his officer

But at the same time I would love to serve in the Athenian Academy, or especially the Lyceum, as it was more scientific and less philosophical.

Philosophy at that time was considered as Science itself: philosophy was science.

[Skullheadhq]

nomad, steppe->Barbaropolis/Megale Hellas
Loot like the huns.

[Dewirix]

I think there's a limit to the capacity of ancient societies to absorb technological innovations which would frustrate attempts to give them guns or even the printing press.

It's probably possible to build working models of the above (although I certainly couldn't), but persuading a society to adopt them on a widespread basis would be a far greater challenge.

Notwithstanding the fact that you're an outsider and lack the political or financial connections necessary to fund these projects, you'd need some way of demonstrating their benefits.

Take the musket for example; ignoring the technical challenges of building one, you'd need to convince the military hierarchy to adopt the weapon en masse otherwise at best all you'd have is another type of missile infantry which can fire further than archers, but with limited accuracy and very slow reloading times.

Worse still, in city-states like Rome with citizen militia armies, battlefield role is bound up with social status (equites being drawn from the highest classes, then the regular infantry grades, then the light troops at the bottom). Telling a triari (who at this point buys his own equipment), that he now has to fight in the same way as everyone else is unlikely to be popular.

Some innovations could probably be introduced fairly quickly, the stirrup is a good candidate here, but others, even concepts like crop rotation, would meet with heavy resistance on the grounds that you don't really have any evidence as to why people should abandon long-standing customs.

And back to the original question, I'd like to see the Hellenistic east. The idea of Greek kingdoms in India and Afghanistan is so incredible that if someone were to have made it up I wouldn't have believed it.

[Alsatia]

I'd probably be in Roma, running for the tribunate.

I would love to see those greek battles though, and to look and see the sucessor kingdoms.

[Companion Cavalry]

I would assassinate the ancestor of Scipio.

[The General]

I'd be in Rome, although I wouldn't, naturally enough, be serving an Emperor...

I'd be probably a Populares senator with a decent military record, thing for Philosophy, altruism, Greek wisdom and inventions, et cetera.

And back to the original question, I'd like to see the Hellenistic east. The idea of Greek kingdoms in India and Afghanistan is so incredible that if someone where to have made it up I wouldn't have believed it.

The same with me, Baktria and Indo-Greek Kingdom fascinate me. The idea of Greek, Indian, Chinese and Persian/Central-Asian cultures meeting and knowledge coalescing...

[Andronikos]

The same with me, Baktria and Indo-Greek Kingdom fascinate me. The idea of Greek, Indian, Chinese and Persian/Central-Asian cultures meeting and knowledge coalescing...

Thirded.

I would be (if my social status allowed) some philosopher or priest or writer or engineer/inventor like Heron.

[Andy1984]

nomad, steppe->Barbaropolis/Megale Hellas
Loot like the huns.

That's more like it.

I wonder whether there are other people who'd unleash the psychopath in themselves and set up one of the most cruel cults he can imagine, including the practices of human sacrifices, decapitatition and head-hunting? And why not include the most gross torture and case of physical and/or sexual violence as well?

[Mikhail Mengsk]

I will BECOME the emperor, rather than serving a non-existing one XD. Even if it would be hard to make rifles (unless you would be able to make a proper rifled gun, you will have arquebuses, not so powerful and pretty short-ranged), our knowledged would be VERY useful.

[Atraphoenix]

I would be fortune teller and kings would start to beg on their future
and would tell all greeks to unite against rome then continue to kill each other again.

[ziegenpeter]

Yiieeeeeha! Sweboz are 2nd mightiest!
But I have to admit that I dont know if I'd spend my whole live in those forests. Especially so early (272bc!). Later on it would be far more interesting. But germania would be certainly the first place I had to check out.
When it comes to where I would spend my life it would be Alex, certainly. Considering I wouldnt live much longer than 200 BC this is maybe the most important and most exciting city in the known world... right?

[Snite]

Walking in the forest wtih the Sweboz. Since I think I'm roughly the average height of a barbaroi back then (I'm 5ft 8in) I'll fit in better than I would elsewhere though I would have no clue what they were saying it would still be fun. And I would hope that they have already adopted soap like EB says and if not, introduce it to 'em.

[Whatever Scortamareva]

And I would hope that they have already adopted soap like EB says and if not, introduce it to 'em.

Although the barbarian soap was apparently a carcinogen but feel free, I'm sure it's better than covering yourself in olive oil