text: You find yourself in what seems to be a gloomy, cool tunnel. In the distance, you hear a multitude of muffled voices. Ahead of you at what seems to be a junction is a lightsource coming from a pathway to your right. You head towards it and when you look to your right, stumble upon three Roman guards. They are standing on a slight slope leading up to a gate through which daylight shines through. The Roman guards are surprised to see you standing there and approach you. They ask you questions, but you are unable to answer as your latin is not so fluent to say the least. The gate in front of you slowly starts rising whereupon one of the guards, clearly irritated by your silence, grabs you by your shoulder and brutally pushes you forward towards the gate to join the other people standing there. You soon find yourself bringing up the rear of a dozen people dressed in regular Roman clothing. Greeted by the daylight as you pass the gate you find yourself in what seems to be an arena. There must be a thousand people sitting around the arena, greeting you with exclamations and yells as your group appears. The people you are following are distinctively worried, if not scared. Some pray devoutly or sing hymns others yet, are weeping. There are a few women, but most people in your group are made up of men anywhere between 15 and 70 years old. Having arrived at the far edge of the sandy arena, a deathly silence falls over the arena...a frightening foreboding of what is to happen. From out of a few holes in the ground suddenly lions appear. First one, then two, three, four and finally five. The crowd on the tribunes cry out in a frenzy...and you know exactly why!
  
  As promised I've sent you to ancient Rome once again. This time, it's the year 64 A.D. and Emperor Nero reigns over the Roman Empire. It's september, and only a few months after the Great Fire. You are amongst the scapegoats of this tragedy: the Christians! Some Christians have already served as lighting for the sadistic Emperor, others have been crucified and you...will be thrown to the hungry lions...that is, unless you can answer the following question correctly: The Chirsitians were persecuted a number of times during the Roman Empire, under Emperor Nero, Decius, Diocletian and Galerius but do you when Christianity became the state religion of the Roman Empire?
  
  > After the Edict of Thessalonica in 380 A.D.
  For the 14th time...you are correct! And this was not an easy one. The Edict of Thessalonica or the Cunctos populos was jointly issued by the Roman Emperors Theodosius I, Gratian and Valentinian II in February 380 A.D.. The edict made Christianity the state religion of the Roman Empire. Although the Council of Nicaea in 325 had attempted to bring unity within the Christian church, the controversy continued. In an extreme effort to stop the strife once and forever, the Nicene Christianity was proclaimed as the only Christian faith and the state religion. Non-Nicene sects, such as Arianism lost their right to meet, ordain priests and spread their beliefs. There was no more room for toleration.
  
  With all the eyes of Rome upon you, waiting for you to be torn to pieces by the lions, it will not be easy to get you warped to your final destination without being noticed. May I suggest you to move close by to the others of your group and cover yourself with one of their toga's? That will be the best way and the safest way. After all, once the lions move in for the kill, nobody will notice that one of the Christians is missing...off you go!
  
  > Your final destination...
  You find yourself in modern day Syria in May in the year 1274 B.C. It is pleasantly warm and you stand in a fairly dry and sandy area. In the distance ahead of you, you see a walled city resting upon a mound. And a little further away, to the west, a small camp. To your right, there is a treeline but since the sun is shining brightly from this direction, you cannot make out much more. Behind you, you are surprised to see a cloud of sand. Looking more closely, you can make out that what is coming towards you, are horses. Noticing the cavalry behind you growing larger and larger, you quickly decide to head towards the tree line in order to make sure that you will not stand in anybody's way. As the cloud of sand approaches you, you find out that the cavalry is in fact a large number of horse-drawn chariots, manned by two drivers. You don't know how many are approaching, but it's quite a lot, probably at least hundred. It's an amazing sight to see! In order to prevent being run over, you run towards the safety of the trees...but you are forced to halt as you see your escape route blocked by...even more horse drawn chariots! Accompanied by the sound of horns a multitude of chariots appear from behind the tree lines and head towards you! It seems that you about to be 'sandwiched' between two rival forces on horsedrawn chariots...
  
  Congratulations time traveler! You have been warped to your 15th and final destination. One more historical event literally stands between you and your graduation as historian. Exciting isn't it? You are an unwilling witness to the opening phase of the famous Battle of Kadesh, the earliest battle in recorded history for which details of tactics and formations are known. It is also the largest chariot battle ever fought...but by now, you already must have known this. There is no way for you to escape being run over unless you can answer me this final question: Which civilization confronted the Egyptian Pharaoh Ramesses II during the battle of Kadesh?
  
  > The Assyrians
  No, the Assyrians were not present during the battle of Kadesh, although they must have been rubbing their hands in content seeing their powerful neighbors weakening themselves. The Assyrian civilization was centered on the upper Tigris in northern Mesopotamia (present day northern Iraq). The Assyrians ruled over a number of Kingdoms and Empires between 2300 B.C. and 605 B.C. They were originally part of the Akkadian Empire, but when this Empire collapsed in the 21st century it split up into two nations: Assyria in the north and Babylon in the south. Assyria would rise and fall in prominence several times during its existence, at one time or the other becoming subjects of the Sumerians, the Babylonians, the Hurrians but also founding three powerful Empires that during the Neo-Assyrian Empire would reach as far south as Ethiopia and as far north as the Black Sea. At its height in the 8th century B.C., Assyria was one of the most advanced nations of its time...and in warfare one of the most cruelest.
  
  Now isn't that just a bummer? You've answered wrong on the very last question! You were so close...I'm leaving you in Syria in 1274 B.C., right at the start of the battle. Your fate rests on two possible outcomes: you are either run over by the approaching chariots or you are hit by one of the hundreds of arrows fired off by either the Egyptian or Hittite charioteers. Which one do you prefer?