You're dropped in 1B.C. How do you conquer the known World?

[tdenmark]

You get a one-way ticket to 1B.C. You can take 1 backpack full of stuff.

What do you bring and how do you go about conquering the ancient world?

[dicebro]

1 copy of a Latin-English Dictionary. 1 copy of “How to Make Friends & Influence People”. 5 lbs of MSG.

[tdenmark]

There are plenty of good how to restart civilization books, I'd take one of those along with:

The Anarchist's Cookbook
A bag of cubic zirconias and pearls
Rand McNally Atlas of the World
A copy of Dungeons and Dragons and a bag of polyhedral dice

Maybe a greek-english dictionary would be more useful?

I gotta admit, bringing MSG is a good idea. It is unfairly maligned.
Though bringing any selection of spices is likely to make you wealthy.

[dicebro]

Feb 9, 2021 17:17:52 GMT -6 tdenmark said:

There are plenty of good how to restart civilization books, I'd take one of those along with:

The Anarchist's Cookbook
A bag of cubic zirconias and pearls
Rand McNally Atlas of the World
A copy of Dungeons and Dragons and a bag of polyhedral dice

Maybe a greek-english dictionary would be more useful?

I gotta admit, bringing MSG is a good idea. It is unfairly maligned.
Though bringing any selection of spices is likely to make you wealthy.

The Romans loved it. 

Here’s what else, based on careful reasearch, I would pack: Survival kit contents check. In them you'll find: one forty-five caliber automatic; two boxes of ammunition; four days' concentrated emergency rations; one drug issue containing antibiotics, morphine, vitamin pills, pep pills, sleeping pills, tranquilizer pills; one miniature combination Russian phrase book and Bible; one hundred dollars in rubles; one hundred dollars in gold; nine packs of chewing gum; one issue of prophylactics; three lipsticks; three pair of nylon stockings.

[Finarvyn]

Not exactly the same situation, but you might read Janissaries by Jerry Pournelle. The basic idea is that a troop of mercenary soldiers escape certain death by accepting a ride on a UFO, and the aliens drop them onto a planet with Roman-era technology with orders to take control of the planet.

One of the characters wants to establish a library of modern knowledge, and he creates a giant chalkboard and interviews each merc to find out what he knows so it can be added to the board. I've often wondered what I know that most others might not so that I could actually contribute to the board in such a situation.

I don't want to spoil anything. There are three books in the series and rumors that Pournelle was working on a fourth, which I think may have hit hardback recently but I haven't tracked down yet.

[kipper]

A Remington double-barreled sawed-off shotgun, a chainsaw, a chemistry 101 textbook, and a book on steam power... I'd be missing the Oldsmobile Delta 88 Royale, but I can hardly fit that in a backpack.

[Merias]

Feb 10, 2021 7:12:43 GMT -6 dicebro said:

Here’s what else, based on careful reasearch, I would pack: Survival kit contents check. In them you'll find: one forty-five caliber automatic; two boxes of ammunition; four days' concentrated emergency rations; one drug issue containing antibiotics, morphine, vitamin pills, pep pills, sleeping pills, tranquilizer pills; one miniature combination Russian phrase book and Bible; one hundred dollars in rubles; one hundred dollars in gold; nine packs of chewing gum; one issue of prophylactics; three lipsticks; three pair of nylon stockings.

About halfway through reading that list it clicked and I read the rest in Major Kong's voice. :)

[flailsnail75]

A .22 caliber automatic handgun with three magazines and the rest of the backpack filled with ammo is my first instinct, but it’s probably a bad one. I’m not sure there’s anything I could fit into a backpack that would enable me to conquer the known world. I could maybe become a warlord or something but I don’t see myself being Alexander with just the contents of a backpack.

[tdenmark]

Pound for pound, and pennies to dollars, the cubic zirconias and pearls, dirt cheap in our time, would be priceless.

Though maybe it would be a good idea to pack some heat and plenty of ammo to protect against thieves. But that would quickly create enemies, and perhaps a following too as you'd be a god.

[Otto Harkaman]

movie projector with various movies to elicit religious fervor making me the high priest and first prophet of the Temple of Film

[DungeonDevil]

Points for the Wizards reference.

Where in the world would I be dropped? That would make a huge difference. And existing harmoniously and profitably in my new environment would be far preferable to risking my time-travelling neck on world-domination.

If it's Rome, I would tell the Senate that in about 500 to 600 years their empire would crumble, and they would be overrun by barbarians, and in about 80 years Pompeii and Herculaneum would be destroyed in a terrible volcano, and in about thirty years a lowly carpenter would overturn their applecart permanently.

Now, if I were instead dropped into Han Dynasty China (in the rule of Emperor Ai of Han), that would be pretty cool to experience first-hand, although as a foreign barbarian, I may wind up in some hot water. Since I can read Chinese (a skill not shared by much of the population) and have a knowledge of Classic Chinese lit, that may have bought me some time to get established among the elites long enough to leverage that for some vital social connections in court.

However, if I were dropped into the middle of North America, well...I guess I'd have to get used to eating buffalo meat.

Location, location, location...

[dicebro]

Feb 10, 2021 10:38:51 GMT -6 kipper said:

A Remington double-barreled sawed-off shotgun, a chainsaw, a chemistry 101 textbook, and a book on steam power... I'd be missing the Oldsmobile Delta 88 Royale, but I can hardly fit that in a backpack.

1970 with a 455 under that big metal hood. You gotta be able to take it with you man.

[tdenmark]

Feb 10, 2021 18:33:56 GMT -6 DungeonDevil said:

However, if I were dropped into the middle of North America, well...I guess I'd have to get used to eating buffalo meat.

Location, location, location...

In that case you could bring some small pox vaccines and prepare the native peoples for the future.

[DungeonDevil]

Feb 10, 2021 21:38:56 GMT -6 tdenmark said:

Feb 10, 2021 18:33:56 GMT -6 DungeonDevil said:

However, if I were dropped into the middle of North America, well...I guess I'd have to get used to eating buffalo meat.

Location, location, location...

In that case you could bring some small pox vaccines and prepare the native peoples for the future.

Good point.

[Deleted]

I'd cough on 'em. "Here's a little 2021 for ya."

[Parzival]

Why would I want to conquer the world? I’d be better off just taking along things to make certain I can survive and thrive without attracting too much official attention— it was a brutal time with a cruel culture in charge of it all. I have no desire to be tortured, scourged, crucified, tossed to lions, butchered by gladiators or any of the other horrid things that mankind dreamt up at the time. And there were pretty much elements of that in every culture you can name. Maybe Tahiti in 1 BC would be okay.

What I most need would be knowledge. I can get vaccinated for the big killers before I go, and if I have the knowledge I can make simple antibiotics from penicillin. So some good books on basic medicine and chemistry, and low level metallurgy (which info I could trade with a smith— he gets superior goods, I get whatever device I need made). But the main thing is someway to learn the language, as quickly as possible, and a few tradable goods. Slowly I would “invent” new things and ways of doing things. If I wanted to make myself public, I’d be certain to become the “indispensable mind” of the age.

Though, to be honest, I’d rather not go. I like modern conveniences, sanitation, and medical care far too much!

[greentongue]

"The nail that stands out will be hammered down."
This holds true even more so in ancient times.

What you could do is make a nice life for yourself and friends.
Thrive but not at the "attract attention" level.

[soundchaser]

The money angle... stuff 20 rolled up purple tunics into the sack. They’ll sell for around $100,000 equivalent each.

Or, a Bible... yeah, in Koine. That would speed things along maybe.

But yes a firearm. A Glock 19 gen5... plus ammo and a few tools and a good powder chemistry book. Making bullets is fun anyhow. So, a gun and such plus 10 purple tunics.

[tdenmark]

Feb 17, 2021 21:35:42 GMT -6 soundchaser said:

The money angle... stuff 20 rolled up purple tunics into the sack. They’ll sell for around $100,000 equivalent each.

Or, a Bible... yeah, in Koine. That would speed things along maybe.

But yes a firearm. A Glock 19 gen5... plus ammo and a few tools and a good powder chemistry book. Making bullets is fun anyhow. So, a gun and such plus 10 purple tunics.

oh, purple silk would make you double rich!

I hadn't thought about the koine Greek. Finding the earliest Christian documents for research would be fascinating. I'd like to see for comparison. I happen to think that modern scholarship has gotten very close to the originals.

There are probably a lot of euphemisms in the language that we don't understand now that made sense in the time.

[tkdco2]

I would introduce Broadway musicals!

[verhaden]

If you were to take a gun, I think flintlock or percussion would be better than a weapon that uses modern jacketed ammo. BP isn’t trivial to make, but it’s doable with limited technology. Balls or conicals are easy to cast if you can find the lead. You could fit a ton of flint or caps in a backpack, though making caps would prove more of a challenge. There aren’t many pop cans laying around at this time...

Being said, if your objective is conquest, one or two guns won’t do you any good. If you had the skill and knowledge to advance metallurgy so that people at the time could make barrels and frames to withstand the pressure at even a 1600-1800s level, you’d be cooking with enough capital and trust from the populace.

Alternatively, we have modern crossbow designs that could be more readily mass produced with limited technology...

Going in another direction, you could win over a lot of people with a backpack full of high yield/resistant crop seeds — ones that can also produce viable seeds. Throw in a few barometers, books on modern best practices, and basic soil testing kits and you would have a chance at reducing famine for your region.

Or you could help grow a naval power with nautical and star charts along with a backpack full of sextants and wind up wrist watches.

Or a tablet/e-reader loaded up with Wikipedia and a solar panel could allow you to predict the future. You could save the lives of several influential people. Save people from natural disasters. Etc.

Realistically, I’d die or settle down for a nice quiet life.

Edit: And if we traveled back to 1 B.C., I hope we also travel through space. Or we’d enjoy the trip for only a brief moment.