So your stuck in the year 100... how do you conquer the world?

[Starchild]

Let's see...in the year 100, my current location is at the Eastern fringe of Roman Britain. The city I'm currently in didn't really get started for another few centuries by the Anglo-Saxons so I'd have to hike for miles to find the nearest Roman settlement. I'm an urban person to my very core. I do not know how to survive off the land in any reasonable way. Romans have few uses for undergraduate biochemists.

Yeah. I'm dead meat walking.

[Dauphin]

I'd use my almanac containing results of gladiator bouts 100-150AD to amass a personal fortune.

[Dauphin]

What was the average height of a person in Europe in 100AD? I'd be quite tall compared to the locals I'd reckon.

[Az]

What's with the fascination with explosives? Why do you think it will give you such a huge advantage? Personally, knowing trade and engineering seems like a much better thing to do.

[alva]

I'd set up a dentist shop and become revered as a god.

[Spiffor]

I'd try to think about agriculture as I know it and about the things that make houses warm (I have no specific knowledge, but that's still a better knowledge than ancient Germanic tribes, and my current neighbours may well know something about it).

Then I'd try to increase the agricultural output of the area, and build a house that is warm and relatively safe from fire. So that I'll spend the remainder of my life in relative comfort.

Edit: should Stuttgart be an established settlement already, I'd try to travel to Rome, and use my knowledge of the future to pass for a prophet. Unfortunately, my specific knowledge is vastly insufficient.

[molly bloom]

Spiff, weren't there some reasonably sized urban Roman settlements near to your current location ?

An interactive Roman Empire map for your delectation and amusuement:

http://resourcesforhistory.com/map.htm

[Az]

You can use google to find out if your place is civilized. It's not against the rules of the game, I think.

http://www.euratlas.com/time/nw0001.htm

[General Ludd]

Originally posted by Spiffor
I'd try to think about agriculture as I know it and about the things that make houses warm (I have no specific knowledge, but that's still a better knowledge than ancient Germanic tribes, and my current neighbours may well know something about it).

Then I'd try to increase the agricultural output of the area, and build a house that is warm and relatively safe from fire. So that I'll spend the remainder of my life in relative comfort.

Edit: should Stuttgart be an established settlement already, I'd try to travel to Rome, and use my knowledge of the future to pass for a prophet. Unfortunately, my specific knowledge is vastly insufficient.

I'd wager that an agrarian society will already know more about agriculture than you could possibly tell them (particularily when you consider that most crops grown thesedays did not exist in europe at that time), and that any knowledge you have of construction would be ultimately useless in regards to the materials available, and that they already know how to use what they have to make a comfortable home better than you could, anyways.

[Spiffor]

Yup, I'm among the Sveba. Agricultural bunch, appeased by the romans IIUC. Also, I'm right next to a river that leads to the the Rhine (about 150 km till the junction with the Rhine), so going anywhere shouldn't be too difficult if I find a way to get locals help me with the food and protection during the voyage. It's possible there is no large settlement with Roman traders around, but Mayence is already an established Roman settlement, so I should find trade caravans there.

I must admit that I'd largely prefer settling down in Italy than in Germany. The cold would easily kill me otherwise.

[Az]

yeah, General Ludd, every society knows everything about survival in it's own enviroment.


Btw, KH, I've been thinking about it, and where are you going to get alcohol?

[molly bloom]

Originally posted by Spiffor
Yup, I'm among the Sveba. Agricultural bunch, appeased by the romans IIUC. Also, I'm right next to a river that leads to the the Rhine (about 150 km till the junction with the Rhine), so going anywhere shouldn't be too difficult if I find a way to get locals help me with the food and protection during the voyage.

All you need now is to locate the silk, wine, pheasant & peat and you're all set.

[Dauphin]

Originally posted by Az
Btw, KH, I've been thinking about it, and where are you going to get alcohol?

You never made home brew?

[Spiffor]

Originally posted by General Ludd
I'd wager that an agrarian society will already know more about agriculture than you could possibly tell them (particularily when you consider that most crops grown thesedays did not exist in europe at that time), and that any knowledge you have of construction would be ultimately useless in regards to the materials available, and that they already know how to use what they have to make a comfortable home better than you could, anyways.

I don't know for Germanic huts, but Celtic huts were heavy on wood and straw, and didn't have a separate chimney to evacuate the fumes. When the Romans arrived, they brought great architectural progress. I expect the Germans of the time to be about as backward.

Considering there's a mason among my neighbours (remember, we're bringing the neighbours in the party), I think we'll know fairly quickly how to make primitive cement, so that it would be possible to build a house in non-flammable material, and a hearth. That's well in advance with primitive huts, despite using available resources.

[Urban Ranger]

Originally posted by Az
Btw, KH, I've been thinking about it, and where are you going to get alcohol?

You can trade useless trinkets for alcohol.