Since this is a kind of "thought experiment", I couldn't
help thinking of practical terms in spite of myself.
To interact with a "real"
roman emperor would be so terribly hard I think. Interact is the key word here.
His answers would depend a great deal on
his perceptions of you, whether he be real or a construct.
If you controlled the situation just wanted a talking
head and could make him "docile" and just a source of information, no problem.
For a real interaction, I speculate that first, you'd have to have command of the latin your emperor spoke.
Romans were class conscious like almost no other people. You'd likely speak it with a "foreign" accent which would make the replies guarded or not get an answer at all. Your dress, demeanor, and that indefinable "air" you projected would be an important factor as well.
There was undoubtedly an accepted way to
act around the emperor that has been lost to time. Not necessarily totally servile, but not as an equal either. The questions you asked would have to be carefully phrased and some could not be asked at all. Don't bring up
Geta to
Caracalla for instance.
Were you to ask about slavery to even the most, by modern standards "enlightened" emperor in a way that implied that it wasn't just a dandy thing would bring incomprehension or anger at your impudence.
I'm not sure that any modern would even know the proper way to address the emperor.
Things we moderns take for granted like
scratching our chins while thinking might be offensive.
A phrase that started with "About the empress" might be a form of quick suicide.
So many things a modern would ask would be
met with "Why in the name of
Jupiter would you want to know that? Why do you want to know how coins are made? Everyone knows that. Guards!"
And the almost irresistable urge to tell the emperor of future events might get you labeled as a "soothsayer" which some emperors
had killed and most detested.
A challenge to say the least.
Bruce
