| rdfs:comment | - Nicole Gunther-Perrin, daughter of a family from Indianapolis, Indiana, was a divorced single-mother lawyer living in West Hills. She worked for the Los Angeles law firm of Rosenthal, Gallagher, Kaplan, Jeter, Gonzalez, & Feng. Tired with her life in the 20th-century, dealing with employers who were openly sexist under a veneer of politeness, trying look after children who missed their babysitter, and losing money fast due to aforementioned sexist employers, one day she wished she lived in the days of Ancient Rome, since she thought life then was much easier.
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| abstract | - Nicole Gunther-Perrin, daughter of a family from Indianapolis, Indiana, was a divorced single-mother lawyer living in West Hills. She worked for the Los Angeles law firm of Rosenthal, Gallagher, Kaplan, Jeter, Gonzalez, & Feng. Tired with her life in the 20th-century, dealing with employers who were openly sexist under a veneer of politeness, trying look after children who missed their babysitter, and losing money fast due to aforementioned sexist employers, one day she wished she lived in the days of Ancient Rome, since she thought life then was much easier. Two gods, Liber and Libera, mounted a plaque bought back from a tour of the ruins of ancient Carnuntum, heard her wish and actually sent her back to ancient Carnuntum, in the body of a distant ancestress, Umma. There she learned that life in those days was not as easy as she thought: slavery was taken for granted, women had no rights, there was no effective medicine or clean medical practices, and no tampons. Over the course of a year, she was forced to revise many of her long-held modern prejudices, including those against alcohol and corporal punishment. She survived epidemic disease and a German invasion; learned that early Christianity was uncomfortably zealous and apocalyptic; and, after a brutal rape by a Roman soldier, discussed the role of government and its duties to abused citizens with Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius. Eventually, Liber and Libera fulfill her desire to return home, where she woke from a week-long 'coma' to find that, with her hard-won skills and improved perspective, both her working and family life improved and she could more easily deal with the stress and difficulties of her modern life. She retained memories which could never be shared with anybody, and a thorough knowledge of the Latin language. She also learnt that many of the beliefs she espoused back in her native century weren't exactly right. Things she reviled such as wine and corporal punishment for children weren't that bad. Also, before being sent back to the past, she had a deep loathing for men. Meeting Titus Calidius Severus changed all that. Also surviving the measles plague and a German invasion hardened and left her grateful for the privileges she enjoyed in the 20th Century.
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