If you could attend any historical event...

Margaret · Post by **Margaret** » Thu October 16th, 2008, 12:36 am

This is such a cool thread. At the moment, I'm thinking the acclamation of Constantine by his legions in Eboracum (now York, England) as Emperor of the Western Roman Empire. About a decade ago, when it was less expensive to travel in Europe, I was wandering through the Undercroft at York Minster and found myself at the exact spot where this probably happened.

Ash · Post by **Ash** » Thu October 16th, 2008, 4:02 am

I can think of many events that I don't want to attend, but wish I was a fly on the wall!

Christine Blevins · Post by **Christine Blevins** » Thu October 16th, 2008, 4:07 am

Having just finished up writing a novel set at in 1776 New York City, I am very taken with the whole notion of Revolution.

I would love to be in New York with a copy of Common Sense in my pocket the day George Washington has the Declaration read aloud on the Commons, and then join in the crowd marching down to the Bowling Green and witness the gilded statue of King George being toppled - thrilling times.

Alaric · Post by **Alaric** » Thu October 16th, 2008, 7:16 am

I'd love to have been at Austerlitz or Waterloo. Oh, and the night Catherine the Great seized the crown from her husband, Peter III.

eclecticreader10 · Post by **eclecticreader10** » Fri October 17th, 2008, 5:42 am

I would have liked to be at the Continental Congress the day they decided on the electorial college. I want to know: what were they thinking?

nona · Post by **nona** » Sat October 18th, 2008, 4:47 pm

ok I narrowed it done to a two..

The Day Anne Boleyn was beheaded

The fall of Rome

Margaret · Post by **Margaret** » Sun October 19th, 2008, 1:35 am

I had so much fun thinking about this question that I wrote a longer answer and posted it on the blog at www.HistoricalNovels.info.

Ash · Post by **Ash** » Sun October 19th, 2008, 4:18 am

I wouldn't want to be around death and destruction. I'd love to be in places where a community is celebrating a great event - end of WWII in Times Square for example. . I'd love to stand on the shore the colonies when the discoverers first land and the natives make first contact (and if I could, I'd warn them about a thing or two). I'd like to be with Gutenburg when he printed his first book, with Beethoven when he worked on Ode to Joy or Shakespeare acting in one of his plays at the Globe. I'd love to be with Colin Fletcher on his discovery of the Grand Canyon, with the archaelogist who discovered the the Terracota Warriors in China; oh, so many possibilities.

eclecticreader10 · Post by **eclecticreader10** » Sun October 19th, 2008, 4:29 am

<<discovered I was standing just beneath the spot where Constantine had most likely stood at that pivotal moment in history>>

How moving to have stood on that spot! In a smaller event but still significant, I once went to Dallas, TX and stood at Daley Plaza and thought about the the Kennedy assassination. It really moved me; it gave me goosebumps. I believe that places have elements (for lack of a better word) of events that took place there.

diamondlil · Post by **diamondlil** » Sun October 19th, 2008, 4:48 am

The place that gave me the most goosebumps when I visited it was the Dachau concentraton camp near Munich.

Another place with a similar feel is Port Arthur in Tasmania. It was spooky because of both how the prisoners were treated their back during colonisation but also because there was a massacre there 20 odd years ago and there are memorials and things there.

Historical Fiction Online

If you could attend any historical event...

Constantine the Great