# Anybody up for a fortnight in the ancient world? Where you will go? What will you do? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [February 28, 2013, 8:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anybody-up-for-a-fortnight-in-the-ancient-world-where-you-will-go-what-will-you-do/651663 "2013-02-28T20:48:58Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Rachellelogram](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rachellelogram/32/8689_2.png) [@Rachellelogram](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rachellelogram)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2013, 2:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anybody-up-for-a-fortnight-in-the-ancient-world-where-you-will-go-what-will-you-do/651663/21 "2013-03-01T02:45:43Z")
> [@Giles](#): > > Interestingly, the largest uninhabited islands at the time period specific were the North and South Islands of New Zealand. (The Maori first arrived there about 1200 AD.) In addition, Hawaii was uninhabited, since the Hawaiians arrived there about 800 AD. A visit to either would be interesting, to document what the flora and fauna were like before human intervention. That sounds sweet as heck! > [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](#): > > Seriously, you’re going to say that to ME? Yes, you’re on the Short List and everything, but that still doesn’t mean I wouldn’t do something cruel for yuks. Well I mean, really I was too lazy to do the research Giles did. So, what he said! 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Hari\_Seldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hari_seldon/32/5173_2.png) [@Hari\_Seldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hari_Seldon)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2013, 4:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anybody-up-for-a-fortnight-in-the-ancient-world-where-you-will-go-what-will-you-do/651663/22 "2013-03-01T16:22:22Z")
Assuming I had a babelfish, I would want to have a long talk with Pythagoras. ---
**Author:** ![BetsQ](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/fbc32d/32.png) [@BetsQ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BetsQ)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2013, 7:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anybody-up-for-a-fortnight-in-the-ancient-world-where-you-will-go-what-will-you-do/651663/23 "2013-03-01T19:51:47Z")
I want to go hang out with Herodotus. I bet he was a kick after a couple of drinks. ---
**Author:** ![eclectic\_wench](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ac91a4/32.png) [@eclectic\_wench](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eclectic_wench)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2013, 8:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anybody-up-for-a-fortnight-in-the-ancient-world-where-you-will-go-what-will-you-do/651663/24 "2013-03-01T20:58:45Z")
> [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](#): > > From the point of view of somebody inside? As quickly as you can say, “Gay Deceiver, take me to Rome on the Ides of March, 44 BCE, at about dawn.” Lovely. _adding Eleusis to itinerary_ ETA: It’s weird, but although Pompeii is one of my Most Amazing Places in the modern world, I don’t have much inclination to go visit it when it was alive and kicking. I’m trying to figure out why. ---
**Author:** ![pancakes3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ba9def/32.png) [@pancakes3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pancakes3)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2013, 9:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anybody-up-for-a-fortnight-in-the-ancient-world-where-you-will-go-what-will-you-do/651663/25 "2013-03-01T21:03:40Z")
I love Roman and Greek history but something tells me that I wouldn’t fit in well with the Greeks and that I wouldn’t be able to stomach the Romans. Chinese history is in an Interesting period, but a turbulent one also (Warring states AND 3 kingdoms fits into the time frame as well as the fall of the Han) though I’m sure you could find a 20 day period there in the midst of the Han prosperity where you could have a hell of a time provided you brought enough gold. Buddha died in 483 BC, so that misses the cut off, but good luck tracking him down even if it was in the right era. You’d be in the sweet spot to witness Ashoka’s reign though. The obvious answer would be to peep in on Jesus, and ultimately I’m assuming that’s what everyone would choose once in the buggy but as Dopers we all want to be a smidge unique. I’d choose hitting up Britain post-Caesar. Gorgeous land, simple people, soothing baths, hot Celtic women… with a satchel of Gold and a few robo-guards making sure you aren’t daggered in the back, you could literally live like a king without worrying about the sanitation of living in Rome, or the super-hetero-man-friendliness of Greece, or the pressures of living in a non-AC world in the middle East, or living with people who literally did not know how to sew cloth in Japan… ---
**Author:** ![carlotta](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/898d66/32.png) [@carlotta](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carlotta)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2013, 9:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anybody-up-for-a-fortnight-in-the-ancient-world-where-you-will-go-what-will-you-do/651663/26 "2013-03-01T21:51:58Z")
I’ll take a babelfish, an invisibility generator and a lavish camp set up (the self making and breaking kind). I’m going to North America to look at the pre-columbian Native Americans. I’m just going to spy on them, I’m bad at meeting new people in the best of circumstances. I’ll probably skip around the continent focusing on the prettiest places. ---
**Author:** ![Oakminster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/77aa72/32.png) [@Oakminster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oakminster)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2013, 11:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anybody-up-for-a-fortnight-in-the-ancient-world-where-you-will-go-what-will-you-do/651663/27 "2013-03-01T23:16:14Z")
> [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](#): > > Athena’s like Lola. She walks like a woman and talks like a man? ---
**Author:** ![Quartz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quartz/32/267_2.png) [@Quartz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quartz)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2013, 11:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anybody-up-for-a-fortnight-in-the-ancient-world-where-you-will-go-what-will-you-do/651663/28 "2013-03-01T23:48:26Z")
I’ll sacrifice the two weeks for a hyper-dimentional cabinet into which I and Hypatia and her colleagues can put a copy of everything in the Library to bring forward to the present day. Then I’ll bury it all in the sands of Namibia or Mauritania and ‘discover’ it, ‘led on’ by an ancient scroll in Hypatia’s own hand. I’d have chosen a cave by the Dead Sea, but they’ve all been taken, and it’s important that they be discovered after my return so as to not disturb my timeline. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anybody-up-for-a-fortnight-in-the-ancient-world-where-you-will-go-what-will-you-do/651663.md?page=1)