What top 10 historical figures (dead or alive) would you like to meet over dinner?

My list includes;
Jesus Christ
Alexander the Great
Aristotle
Kosciusko and
Attila

Somehow I feel like starting pointless arguments today, so here you go:

Since there is absolutly no reliable historical document from the time when Jesus was supposed to live that mentions him in any way, you can't classify Jesus as a historical figure. Pick another one ;)

I have some strange impression that you are avoiding to pay your Kirchensteur. Du bist geizig ;)

So, Christ didn't exist.

Ok, I would like to meet:

1. Theodora, Justinian's wife, for know how
2. Kleopatra, for being Marc Antony's lover
3. Simon de Beauvoir, for intimacy with Sartre
4. George Sand, many interesting...friends
5. Gala, Paul Eluard's wife and Dali's wife, for expertise in wifeness
6. Lou Salome, a friend of Nietzsche, Freud and Rilke
7. Beatrice Portinari, for holding Dante's ....heart?
8. Catherine de Medici, for being wrongly accused for ruthlessness
9. Marianne Faithfull, for some acquaintances
10. Gulietta Mesina, Felini's life companion

and so on, and ask them b1tches how did you make it? :))))

Zimmy, I tried to entertain myself with the list, narrowing the choice to ...interesting...women.
I will think more seriously and post really relevant figures.

I'm surprised you didn't add Countess Elizabeth Bathory to your list :)

Taking a bath in virgin's blood sounds simply stupid and filthy.

That's why ;)

Albert Einstein, Alexander Hamilton, Cleopatra

I've always found scientists fascinating, so Albert Einstein, or Maria Sklodowska-Curie would be the logical choices, but I don't think I could keep up a conversation about physics or chemistry for long in case they wouldn't be up to talking about mindless puff.

yet playing hide the mars bar while smacked out on heroin is somehow admirable?

My great, great, great ,great, great, great grandfather
Muhamed Ali
Peter Jospeh
The Nazi that shot the most people in WWII
Winston Churchill
John Lennon
J F Kennedy
Thomas Jefferson
The head of the Rockafella family
The head of the Rothschild family

I'd just want to hear him talk. Explain his theory of relativity to me. Hamilton - politics and economics. Cleopatra - probably just to see her, I could not think of anyone else.. Jim Morrison et al. are not historical figures, I guessed.

Milton Berle
Desi Arnez Junior
The Emperor Claudius
Lucille Ball
Cleopatra
Frances Farmer
Kurt Cobain
Einstein
Vincent Van Gogh
Antonin Artaud

You might take a look at this:
agapebiblestudy.com/documents/Historical%20evidence%20on%20the%20exhistance%20of%20Jesus.htm

From the link: "to suppress the rumor, he falsely charged with the guilt, and punished with most exquisite tortures, the persons commonly called Christians, who were hated for their enormities. Christus, the founder of the name, was put to death by Pontius Pilate, procurator of Judea in the reign of Tiberius: but the pernicious superstition, repressed for a time, broke out again, not only through Judea, where the mischief originated, but through the city of Rome also."

It's a bit tenuous but it was written by a non Christian.


I like that choice because I'd like to see if she was all she was cracked up to be.


I met him twice and there is a whole 42 seconds of film of both of us together. He had very soft hands for a boxer; that was surprising.

Julius Caesar is also on my list.
Charles Dickens is in my top 20 as is George Washington.


I read "Claudius The God" by Robert Graves long ago and if you haven't read it - do so.

I read it and I, Claudius.

Ever read Colleen McCullough's "Caesar"? I recommend that too.


Oh, I met him. He was rude to me when I was a young boy. He was a short man and his cape always dragged on the floor when he walked. His name was Ziggy but his friends called him "pan wieloryb" :)

"Cornelius Tacitus (AD55-120)" <- He was born long after Jesus supposed death.
All the examples of this page are historical documents that got written after Jesus was already said to be dead.

As I said:


I just think its strange that when you read the stuff that Roman historians did write during 0AD - 30AD not a single one wrote down something like "Oh, and there is currently this Jesus guy running around in our city starting a cult".

Poor Jesus. Nobody seemed to care about him while he was actually alive. :)

But hey, my post was a bit of a wind up and I'm splitting hairs here anyway.
I actually believe that it is quite likely that a "Jesus Christ" existed, or at least a person that he was based on. Of course not beeing a Christian I don't believe any of the legends attributed to him really happened. In the same way I believe Mohammed existed but I doubt the whole flying carped story.

I just wouldn't call them historical figures with so little actual historic knowledge about their lives.
Splitting hairs, as I said ;)

Anyway, the 5 Persons I would like to meet:
- Charlemagne/Karl der Große
- Arthur Schopenhauer (Hours of exchanging misanthropic ideas while walking through Frankfurt and pointing out things that we hate. PURE FUN!)
- Arminius (Can't pass up the man sometimes called "the first german" ;). So many questions...Would I be able to understand his 2000 year old germanic language or would I have to freshen up my Latin? What did he really think of the Romans? What was his actual motivation for the Varus battle, did he really care about the independence of the germanic tribes? Did he just dislike Varus? Was he just trying to create his own empire and get power?)

- George Washington (Or really any of the US founding fathers. Everytime I turn on the TV some reporter on CNN or Fox tells me what he thinks the founding fathers would think and do. So why not cut the middle man and ask them directly for once.)

And if Jesus counts in this thread I demand my right to choose:
- The Headless Hessian Horseman (For beeing Hessian and awesome. :D)

On a round table, in this seating order -

W Shakespeare
Moses
A Hitler (as a teenager)
Siddhattha Gotama (Buddha)
C Jung
Joan of Arc
General Sun-Tzu
M Gandhi (While studying Law in London and in a suit)
Queen Lizzy I (getting it from both barrels)
Bob Marley
Me (stoned of BM's 'aura', not saying much)

Cleopatra was a psychotic cowardly minger who helped to destroy the last chance for the republic.
(still working on my 10 ;) )

• 
  not exactly liz taylor....
  

Writing about this "Christus" a mere 30 or 40 years after His alleged death is still a worthwhile consideration. He may have spoken with people who knew him. Suetonius the historian also made reference to a "Christus" around 100 AD. Verbal history from a previous generation was still relatively fresh. You were splitting hairs while I was taking care of my split ends...


Well, that's one thing we have in common :)


He's in my top 20.

Dinner with Will Rogers would be a blast.

1. Jesus Christ
2. Alfred the Great
3. Saint Bede
4. Charles Dickens
5. Jackie Milburn (football)
6. Duke of Wellington
7. Lord Nelson
8. George Sand
9. Hendrick Avercamp
10. Jack the Ripper

ask me tomorrow and the list will be different.

Most of you guys will end up having a pretty shitty dinner with no one being able to talk to each other :)

In view of the fact that we're talking about dead people, speaking a common language is not that much of a stretch. ;)

u are not wrong. one of my guests was mute.

but then i've got Jesus who can make it all happen.

Having a Jesus around is always useful. Should help ensuring that the drinks flow all night.

1. Hitler
2. Stalin
3. Lennin
4. Napoleon
5. Henry 8
6. Churchill
7. Julius cesar
8. Sobieski
9. Kazomierz wielki
10. Kosciuszko

Just curious; would Ronald Reagan make anybody's top 10? ... top 20? ...top 50?

no as democrats do not like him and republicans threw him out as not right wing enough. you know the thing about giving amnesty to illegal aliens.