Inspired by this thread. I’ve developed a patented time machine. Unfortunately due a quantum resonator harmonics anomaly in the flux capacitor its use is a bit limited - it can transport someone back in time, but only the the site of the Flavian Amphitheatre, circa its inauguration in 80 A.D. until it was damaged by fire in 217 A.D. You’ll be transported back to a random match - gladiatorial combat only, no showy stuff like re-enactments or dramas, just your classic blood and guts. The most brutal bloodsport known to history. You’ll stay for the duration of the match and then be transported back once it’s all over.
I want to make some cash so I’m selling tickets. You can’t change a thing, just observe. Nobody will see, hear or feel your touch - think of yourself as a ghost. If you try and leave your designated area, trying to scam me out of ticket prices or trying to explore Ancient Rome, you’ll return instantly to the present.
So, you in? Ticket prices are below (due to demand, you’re allowed 1 ticket only); they’ll get you access to 5 random gladiator matches in the specified time period, in your specified area.
Premium tickets, up close with the Roman Senators - $2,000.
Second class, with the equestrians - $1,500.
Third class, with the middle classes - $1,000.
Fourth class, up in the gods with the women and plebs - $750.
It’s dear, but generating the 1.21 gigawatts required for time travel ain’t cheap. So, what can I put you down for? Or will you be boycotting my scheme as immoral?
I’d buy. 1,000$ is pretty cheap to see any part of the ancient world.
I think I’d find it immoral to buy tickets for any sort of modern day sport that was as dangerous to its participants as gladiator matches supposedly were, but since these matches have already happened, I don’t really have a problem with seeing them. I don’t think my presence would be “supporting” an institution that’s long since ended anyways.
None of the temporal natives can see, hear or touch you, you’re like a ghost. You’d also need a good working knowledge of Vulgar Latin or ancient Greek to even understand them, no universal translator included.
If you’re wondering about value for money, gladiator match-ups according to a wiki cite typically lasted between 10-15 minutes, but no longer than 20. Don’t blame me if it’s over in seconds though!
Oh, and I’m aware I spelt Colosseum wrong. If a mod can change that, I’ll give you mate’s rates on tickets…
I would balk at seeing such cruelty close up. I was once invited to a real execution in China, but I turned it down. Public killing is not my thing.
Your idea is immoral.
Then again, it’s the fucking Colosseum! In ancient Rome! And my lady is Roman.
Fuck it, dudes are already dead. I would totally pay for two equestrian tickets. Think I’d prefer the view there and I can always look down on the senators.
I’d sit in the cheap seats; I’d want to see how the common people did it.
Could I bring binoculars and look out away from the Colosseum? I’d think I could get a pretty sweet view of the Palatine, Esquiline and Caelian hills as well as some portion of the Forum & Capitoline hills.
not what you’d expect: my opinion exactly, except that I forbore to vote, since no option in the poll correctly describes my view.
I don’t think it’s sick and wrong to want to go back in time and watch events that have already occurred. A lot could be learned from “time machine” history studies.
I’m just not interested, personally, in watching this. (I wouldn’t want to watch Waterloo or Gettysburg, either, but I would give my full support to historians who do.)
I would think it highly sick and wrong to organize modern gladiatorial games. Also, if the past can be altered, then I would feel uncomfortable about viewing the horrors of the past and not acting to avert them. At least for a good, long while, all time travel should be limited to pure passive observation, for purposes of learning about the past. Interference would have to be studied, analyzed, and tested before it could be permitted. It might well be that interference might lead to vastly worse time-lines!
While I’d prefer a day at the races (I suspect I’d be all over chariot races), I wouldn’t turn down tickets to the games. I requested top-of-the-line seats, so shove over, Vestal Virgins.
Every term when I show Gladiator, the majority of students start out by moaning about how amoral and horrible the Romans were, and every term, about 1/2 way through the film, they’re yelling and cheering the gladiators on. The bloodlust doesn’t stay away for long.
I can’t find a cite for this exact incident (The Museum of London sponsors mock games), but I recall reading about make-believe games held in London a few years back where they taught the audience what to cheer and what to shout, and the screaming and shouting for the death-strikes got so out of hand they had to stop the matches to explain that it was all acting. It was in the City (as that’s where the ruins of the amphitheatre are), and people walking on the pavements outside were stopping and quite attracted to all the fuss to see what was going on. It turned out to be an interesting exercise in sociology, apparently.
Not sure which section I’d pick, but I’m more interested in watching the audience than the games themselves (except insofar as it will be necessary to keep an eye on the games to understand what it is that people are reacting to)
It doesn’t matter that the matches have already happened in the past, what concerns me is the modern people who might have a desire to go back and watch such scenes. “Sick and wrong” is putting it mildly. I can understand the impetus to go and watch the crowds, especially since the OP says this is the only such tunnel that exists. But even then I wouldn’t want to be associated with the fellow travellers who are there to watch the games.
I wouldn’t go myself, but I’d pony up for up to the first class ticket to sponsor trips for a reputable scholar of Latin and/or Roman history. Giving an expert a first-hand look and listen would be well worth the price. (Of course, I’d defer to my scholar on which ticket to actually buy–they might feel they could learn more among the lower classes.)
