Another time travel question involving Romans

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iamnotaparakeet
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14 Sep 2009, 6:17 pm

If a time traveler were to go back to ancient Rome and present American currency to anyone who could read Latin, what would they think?



iamnotaparakeet
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14 Sep 2009, 8:32 pm

Particularly the Latin phrases on the money such as:

"E Pluribus Unum" (out of many one),
"Annuit Coeptis" (He favors our endeavors),
"Novus Ordo Seclorum" (new order of the ages).



Prof_Pretorius
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15 Sep 2009, 10:56 am

I doubt that they would be impressed. The Romans were big on war and battle. Such phrases would probably be seen as rather weak.


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DeaconBlues
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15 Sep 2009, 11:31 am

Mostly they'd be thinking (in vulgate Latin, of course), "Why is this oddly-dressed person trying to give me these little pieces of papyrus with random phrases written on them?"

Suppose someone from Da Future(tm) showed up and tried to impress you with plastic chits bearing such phrases as "Don't Worry, Be Happy" or "Today Is the First Day of the Rest of your Life"? What would you think?


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pakled
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15 Sep 2009, 12:57 pm

not much. Paper money didn't exist, so the few that could read (most pre-press cultures didn't have Universal literacy, well, except for Jewish people), would probably hand it back.

Romans were also very much about superiority; they'd see anyone who didn't look Latin, speak Latin, and dress like them as a barbarian. Either you were going to be some sort of slave, a criminal, or a rube from the sticks (pagani). Likely they'd set their own slaves on you to beat you off...

Or if you were very unlucky, you'd become a slave yourself...democracy was for the elites...life was cheap, etc.



ZEGH8578
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15 Sep 2009, 1:31 pm

politicians would probably not find it extraordinary, as they have the attitude of "existing forever" the same way i bet american politicians imagine their english phrases still in use 2000 years from now.

peasants however may prove more impressed, as they are probably more easily impressed by anything anyway


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15 Sep 2009, 5:04 pm

given that they could grasp that is was money and that you were from the future. They would probably freak out that precious metals had become so common place that a odd form of papyrus now had more value. They would probably want to know how long they had till it became valuable and what it was made out of so they could a stranglehold on the market before it existed. Or they might just steal it from you and go around town claiming it as something really rare and valuable. Making them insanely wealthy. Thus upsetting the time line, and causing a tear in the space-time continuum that would eventually lead to the total annihilation of all realities.

Then again that's really completely ignoring your question. :)



Asmodeus
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16 Sep 2009, 9:41 am

DeaconBlues wrote:
Mostly they'd be thinking (in vulgate Latin, of course), "Why is this oddly-dressed person trying to give me these little pieces of papyrus with random phrases written on them?"

Suppose someone from Da Future(tm) showed up and tried to impress you with plastic chits bearing such phrases as "Don't Worry, Be Happy" or "Today Is the First Day of the Rest of your Life"? What would you think?


This. They are pretty much phrases just made to sound epic.



iamnotaparakeet
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16 Sep 2009, 9:48 am

And how would their reaction differ if I were to bring back firearms and teach them how to make gunpowder?