Jens Gerlach

3.5/5. Time travel is a bit out of my comfort zone, but this one was interesting: Hans Lanzspiel, a German is taken back to the Rome of Domitian. Setting is Germania--sounds reasonable given the hero's nationality :). He is resting by a river Lahn, and a Roman river patrol boat picks him up. At first any Romans he sees he feels are re-enactors but, no, after any of them speak only Latin, he knows he has time-travelled back in time. Although at first, he's a prisoner, after learning Latin, he does prove his worth by giving a tracheotomy to a wounded soldier. For that reason, he's made a capsarius (a medic.) He tells no one he's from the future but everyone thinks of him as some kind of seer. He operates on a legate successfully and devises a sophisticated map that corrects Roman errors and adds more information. On the order of his legate, he spies, along with his centurion friend Quintus, and their German scout, Berowulf on the Chattian tribe, for which he receives a Roman military decoration. As they pass each stage of their journey, he compares the Germania of then and the Germany of today. He is at Domitian's battle with the Chattian tribe and describes the action. After celebrating the Roman victory with his friends, he wakes up back in Germany.… (más)