Which historical figures do you want to meet if going back in time?

I'd like to see Nikola Tesla and Sir Isaac Newton in person.

Benjamin Franklin

Emperor Theodosius I and Patriarch Theophilus of Alexandria.

I want to punch them in the face until my arm falls off. Twice.

ALL OF THEM.

EDIT: Okay, King Alfred the Great, language barrier aside.

edited 29th Apr '11 3:34:03 AM by annebeeche

Argeus' list of historical figures to-meet, volume 1: Classical Antiquity.

• Lysandros of Athens. "Say... mind if you retell me the tale of how Apollon's arrows guided your fleet to victory again?"
• Ptolemy I Soter. "So, how did you take a chunk of Alexander's empire for yourself and people are still fine with it?"
• Jugurthine. "I guess bribing can only get you so far, eh?"
• Gaius Marius. "Sign me up for the Mules of your namesake."
• Marcus Licinius Crassus. "Just a poor man of Rome here - sign me up for a free lunch, please? And BTW, telling ya that fighting the Parthians without the Hayasdan heavy cavalry is a bad idea."
• Octavius Augustus. "Oh hey, nice city. Glad to see you built it back real nice after the old men of the republic almost wreck it to hell and worse, huh?"
• Marcus Aurelius. "So you are leaving your empire to whom? Are you effing out of your... ahem, pardon me."
• Constantine I. "You know, I doubt that "Christianity" deal is a good idea, but meh - your choice."
• Flavius Aetius. "Nice work trashing the Huns. You know, about a thousand years later some other dudes on horseback who may or may not be related to them will... never mind."

• William Shakespeare. Ask him about the real ending intended for Macbeth before having to rush it.

^If I ever met William Shakespeare, I would punch him repeatedly in the face for all the High School English lessons I had to put up with.

Henry II Plantagenet, Frederick I Barbarossa, Edward I, and Peter Abelard.

Karl Marx and Jesus.

How do you know that Jesus exists

Roman birth and death records.

edited 24th Apr '13 8:15:48 AM by yowuza

I don't know about you, but I find Elagabalus definitely more crazy than Caligula.

I'd meet Karl Marx just to punch him (lol) or to discuss his theory and all that jazz. I don't think communism works, so I want to know...why?

Also, almost every rock star ever, every death film director as well (Especial mention to humphrey Bogart) and, most importantly, Alan Moore...without a beard.

• Find JRR Tolkien and nerd out with him over Germanic history/culture/mythology, and linguistics/the Germanic language group big time.

edited 29th Apr '11 5:38:39 AM by annebeeche

You don't meet them! Time paradox! Butterfly effect! I'm not about to accidentally get them killed by holding them up just long enough to get run over by a carriage.

Unless it turns out that I already did, in which case it's out of my hands anyway.

Unless anything you do while time travelling never actually happens.

In which case I'm either creating and destroying universes (including killing the person I plan on meeting) or it's just a simulation and can't be worth anything more than the designers put into it.

This is theoretical. The question is who you want to meet, so it's got more to do with personal preference than actual time travelling.

edited 29th Apr '11 8:12:37 AM by Nightwire

ARGH! GRAMMAR RAGE!

Oops, what got into me?

Fixed

Shaka Zulu.

I have a time machine. Why am I wasting time meeting historical figures?

So you could kill them and change history?

edited 30th Apr '11 3:13:24 AM by Nightwire

Why would I possibly do that?

I'm an archaeologist! I don't change history, I preserve it!

edited 29th Apr '11 8:44:48 AM by LuckyRevenant