imagine you are given the opportunity to travel back in time, but only to a point in time within the Roman Empire (approximately 500 BCE - 500 AD)....

How you answer this question really depends
on your interests and, to some extent, your personality. The latter point is simpler: do you
wish to live in exciting, tumultuous, dangerous times? These are not in short supply, but if you
are the type of person who thrives on adrenaline, I think I would choose the end of Julius
Caesar's career and his assassination. The aftermath of this was actually not as chaotic as, for
instance, Shakespeare depicts. Brutus and Cassius were not driven out of Rome by an angry mob.
It would still, however, be fascinating (and far from safe) to see for oneself how these events
unfolded. Or you might want to join Pliny the Younger to see the eruption of Vesuvius for
yourself. If you prefer something less sensational, then there are plenty of relatively peaceful
periods under such emperors as Trajan, Hadrian or Marcus Aurelius, or in the middle years of the
Republic, from which to choose.

If you are interested in Christianity. I
would not choose Bethlehem at the birth of Jesus. There is considerable dispute about whether
Jesus was even born in Bethlehem (some scholars argue that he actually came from Nazareth, where
he grew up, others say Jerusalem) and even if he was, there would probably not be much to see. I
imagine it would be far more interesting to go to Galilee when Jesus was preaching there, or
even to be present at the crucifixion. Or you might follow Paul and Barnabas to witness the
development of the early Church or take a seat at the Council of Nicea.

My
personal choice, for what it is worth, would be to go to Rome at the height of the Augustan Age.
Perhaps around 25 BCE. At this point, Virgil was still alive and working on the
Aeneid. Horace had published some of his major works and Augustus, secure
in his power after the Battle of Actium, ruled over a flourishing city, every aspect of which
would be of interest to historians and anthropologists, to say nothing of the discoveries to be
made in architecture, art, literature, music and thousands of aspects of daily
life.