Does anyone know where the imperial palace would have been in relation to the forum? Is there anything left of it today?
I admit to the error I made in not recalling the difference between the Republic’s citizenship policies & those of the Empire’s.
But there is a great difference between the Rome written about by Roman aristocrats, & the real Rome seen everyday on the streets of the Subura.
I assert that a stranger who was not a citizen & did not have an embassy in the city might very well find himself wearing chains the day after he arrived. Not always, but far from never.
In any event, Quintas has a better chance of walking up to the gates of the White House, asking if George W is free for a couple of minutes & then getting in than he would meeting an Emperor.
True. But a person with weapons from 2000 years in the future would probably get to meet W.
Well, reading my OP, I see that i asked if a ‘common’ person could get an audience. I suppose if I have future weaponry I could just kill all who get in my way. However,to use Bosda’s example of meeting the president, I would imagine that I could get an audience with the prez. after being interogated by security goons etc. for a few days. Give them a few hints of what I planned to tell the president,show them a few tricks from the future, and I’m sure I could get at least 5 minutes, under guard.
Quintas, the palace complex in Rome was on the Palatine right next to the Roman Forum, towards the river. You can pay about $6 and visit the ruins on the Palatine. The forum itself is free.
And I thought of a scheme for getting an audience with the emperor. OK. Show up in a place that is removed from Rome but still a wealthy and large city, perhaps Antioch. (I just think it would be better to start out somewhere other than Rome itself). Arrive between 98 and 138 AD so that you’ll be dealing with either Trajan or Hadrian. Your cover story could be that you’re a trader from the east and that you’ve run into some problems with the Parthians and you’ve come west to get your business back on track. Have in addition to your AK-47s etc, some luxury goods like pepper and silk. Also drag along a nice little entourage and a few body guards. Try to obtain introductions to the top men in town. Once you’ve met some of the bigwigs try to establish a client/patron relationship with the biggest fish. You’re not going to have a family to back you up so you’ll need all the powerful friends you can get.
In the meantime you’ll want to have all your goodies stashed in a remote location that only you and maybe one of your entourage knows about. Once you’ve established yourself a bit start trying to get the patron and maybe some of the other top guys interested in a business deal involving the luxury goods you’ve stashed away. Once you’ve set up the deal and it’s gone beautifully make sure everyone gets their share of the profits and throw in some extra kickbacks as well. Keep doing the business deals for a good long while and don’t skimp on the lavish banquets and gifts to your new friends. Then you mention to your patron that you may have a line on some new weapons that might interest the local military establishment. Suggest to your patron that you’d like to throw a dinner party with the local military brass as guest of honor. The dinner goes well and afterwards when you demonstrate the new weapons the generals are very impressed.
Now, if you happen to be in Antioch in 129 AD you’re in luck. Hadrian visited Antoich that year on one of his trips (he travelled all over the empire). You could just have your patron and your good friends in the military arrange for an audience with Hadrian when he rolls into Antioch. Hadrian places an order for all the AK-47s you can produce and the rest is alternate history. In the event that you missed Hadrian and needed to go to Rome I think you would be able to arrange the trip/audience with the local politicians/military brass and your patron (you would be a wealty, connected business man at this point). All through this process you would want to watch your back very carefully and also make sure everyone else gets a nice slice of the glory, as well as the money.
So, what do you think?
Ave, I think you could have produced a downright terrifying Roman Empire.
Pax Romana, hell! We got F-16s!
did the romans actually speak latin? I had heard it was only a written language.
Try one of the Antonines (98-180 AD) – they were competent level-headed leaders who kept the string going by adopting select underlings as heirs (until Marcus Aurelius broke the string by letting his no-good biological son Commodus inherit).
Bosda: a very minor nit-pick:
Pliny the Elder (died in Nero’s Reign during the Vesuvuis eruption) laments that Roman men of his day had switched to wearing gold rings instead of the good iron rings of their forefathers.
Ave Minerva has a good idea in that this is method is largely the way one would get an audience with the President or Prime Minister today: via an introduction from someone of influence who could vouch for you. A strange and manifestly dangerous person from who-knows-where isn’t going to meet anyone other than security forces.
The Classical Latin was a written language. The closest equivalent would be the really formal, stylized legalese contracts and laws tend to be written in. You didn’t hear people going around using Classical Latin in the streets.
But Vulgate Latin was used, and kinda still is: French is a pretty direct descendent from one branch of the Vulgate, and so is Italian. In fact, all Romance languages derive from Vulgate Latin, and all European languages have been influenced by Latin to some extent.
I don’t know how close the Classical and the Vulgate ever were.
Thanks for that info on the palace, Ave. Believe it or not I have not been able to find ANY info on that until I used ‘palatine’ in the search.
Another question that is probably getting off topic, but, does anyone know of any links detailing the destruction of classical Rome? I know alot of it was done by the Church in the Middle Ages. For example, when was the last time the forum looked like,well, the Forum? Also, looking at the pics of the ruins on palatine hill, I can see that it must have been quite impressive. I would imagine that the Popes or whatever other bigwig controlled Rome in the Middle Ages would have just moved in, instead of destroying it.
Just one more thing. Are there any estimates on how much of classical Rome is still buried under the modern city? Is it a situation where archaeologist know interesting stuff is there, but theres just no wat to get to it?
Well, a lot of it wasn’t deliberate. It was either damage from wars, neglect, or, for the most part, building projects. If you were building something, it was a lot easier and cheaper to get the stone from a derelict building than to quarry new stone. SO, a lot of that happened.
Stupid Reply from the Title[sup]TM[/sup]: Have a really good show, get some good reviews from the critics, then send the emperor some free tickets. He’ll be in the audience in no time.
Quintas, the last thing built in the Forum was the Column of Phocas and I believe that was around 653 AD, give or take a few years. After that it was a steady down hill slide. The popes did live on the Palatine for a brief period, I believe in the 1300s, but I’m not sure which buildings they occupied. As far as I know there isn’t much documentation for the destruction of the various temples etc. Rome was sacked a number of times over the years and people used the Roman buildings as marble mines all during the Middle Ages. I recently heard that the palaces on Capri were pretty much intact until the 1700s when wealthy Europeans on holiday arrived and started helping themselves to building materials.